"Ends With The Sea" & "Winter Watercolors“
"Winter Watercolors - Years 1984-1988"
They started rehearsing in the Spring of 1983, under the name “Ends With The Sea”. The founding members were : Antonis B. Koukios (guitar, lead vocals, composition, lyrics), Platon Tsoulos (drums) and Spiros Anagnostou (bass and founding member of “Not 2 Without 3”). They performed at various gigs in Athens (at “Skiahtro” club, “Broof”, “Vitreau” and a lot of festivals), playing their earliest songs, “La Morte”, “Years”, “Suicide”, “Take Me”, “Mirrors Inside Mirrors” and more, all of them composed by Antonis B. Koukios. The following year, Spiros Anagnostou left and George K. Koukios (brother of Antonis B. Koukios, and founding member of “Morel”) became his replacement in the band. Unfortunately, during the Autumn of 1984 the band broke up.
1985 : a new beginning for the band, with a different name. “Winter Watercolors” (inspired by an Antonis B. Koukios’ poem). Besides Antonis Koukios and Platon Tsoulos, new members were added : Vasilis Nakis (synths, composition), Dimitris Dimitriou (bass, backing vocals, composition) and Manos Konstantinidis (guitar, backing vocals, percussion, composition). The new members brought new fresh ideas. Their sound was enriched with various pop, jazz and funk elements, taking its definitive, compact and solid form, as can be heard on the record. They started their live appearances once again (clubs like “Cat’s Meow”, “Skiahtro”, “Tracks”, “127db”, “Swing”, “Vitreau” hosted and supported them). In May 1987 they participated in the 1st School contest (with Sarra Galanopoulou on piano) at Sporting stadium, winning the first place. The price was the participation in 2 concerts at “Park”- Pedio Areos, supporting established Greek bands and artists of that period, like “Last Drive”, Pavlos Sidiropoulos, “Tripes” and Dimitris Poulikakos.
Their first ever studio recordings took place in 1987 at “Studio +Ena” and remained in their original reel-to-reel tape format till our days. “Mirror Inside Mirrors”, “La Morte (1st version)”, “Time After Time”, “I Suppose”. They appeared in various radio shows, interviews and reviews for their live gigs, while they participated in “Morel’s” first album presentation at “Cat’s Meow” club, along with “Morel” and Giorgos Dimitriadis & Little Heroes. The same year they were chosen by the Ministry of Culture (along with “Lefki Simfonia” and “Rodondo Rocks”) to represent Greece at the 2nd new artists Biennale Festival in Barcelona, Spain. They received some very positive reviews from the Spanish media, and were congratulated in person by Spain’s Ministry of Culture. Just before their trip to Barcelona, they recorded “La Morte (2nd version)” and “Across The Water” at “Studio 111”. “La Morte” was chosen by the Spanish organizers to be included in the official LP-compilation of the 2nd Biennale.
In 1988 they recorded “It’s Too Late” and “Alibi” at “Studio Tracks” and participated at Italy’s Biennale pro-festival, which took place in Bari. They were praised enthusiastically by the Italian media, and hosted on Italian television and radio shows.
After their return to Greece, they played their last gig at “An” club in Athens and thereafter disbanded permanently.
28 years after their last show, Geheimnis Records with its 24th release, presents the complete studio recordings of the band + 2 songs (from their first live gig in 1984 at Lofos Strefi) from the “Ends With The Sea” era, in 300 hand-numbered copies, 179 of them in black and 109 in transparent orange vinyls.
All songs have been remastered by Manos Konstantinidis and mastered for vinyl by Chris Manolitsis. Includes insert with lyrics, photos and a bio/history of the band.
The album “Years 1984 – 1988” is dedicated to the memory of our good friend and member of Winter Watercolors, Dimitris Dimitriou.
