» Aug 12th, 2008

2L8 – The story so far. Or something like that.

When we launched this website we also installed a spy thing (he he) a counter, tracker. Oh sorry “we” isn’t the appropriate word, the webmaster did this dirty work, my beloved friend Tzouris (in the contact section you can send him e-mails swearing, insulting, viruses, oh improvise). It is fun from time to time to visit and see who is visiting the 2L8 web page. So I woke this morning and I checked it. In the last 500 people visiting 250 are from abroad.

And here you are: United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Czech Republic, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Sweden, Islamic Republic Of Iran, Austria, Philippines, India, Croatia, Belgium, Australia, Viet Nam, Turkey, Norway, Argentina, Russian Federation, Venezuela, Serbia, Thailand, Romania, Malta, Bulgaria, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Puerto Rico, China, Poland, Finland! (Copy-paste! What an invention!).

That was quite surprising. It got me thinking. First of all I thought that it is such a pity that this webpage is that scarcely updated. For the last year(s) we hardly ever post anything, not even news! There are many excuses for that but… never mind. And also I thought that it doesn’t really make sense. Sense to what this 2L8 thing is anyway. I mean there is only an old press release for the Armed Angels debut (which is fine with me because I will be 22 forever?). Well I’ve got to answer, don’t I? But in order to do so I must sum things up. In my mind. Cause I don’t have the slightest clue myself!

Numbers might help: 4 is the number of years we exist. 40 is the number of the people involved all those years. 25 of them are musicians, the rest 15 are video artists, cinematographers, actresses, dancers, costume, stage, light and graphic designers. Plus a large number of people helping me-us in different not “artistic” ways but without their help we could have never done anything. True. All of them participated in all kind of different ways, some more, some less in the 2L8 project. All these are really really really impressive. I am counting and thinking of all these people and I feel shocked. You see I always thought of myself as a worthless little shit, so how come I achieved having all those girls and boys working for me – for 2L8? Must be something about kindness, but that would be something quite arrogant for me to say. Well, I've already said it. Anyway. How did I manage to manipulate and deceive all of them? And are you ready? Almost none of them ever got paid, or the money was much less than the actual value of their work! I always thought I’ll become nothing more but a drunk following my self-destructive nature and the path my childhood friends followed. Well what can I say? It is the Balkans; you have to kill yourself in some sort of way. It’s a matter of honor and off course the hard to avoid artificial stupidity that sustains the Death Industry globally. But nope. I somehow managed to be surrounded by many beautiful, graceful, gifted people. And that alone would a blessing for my life, but it gets even worse! Don’t know how to set this, but having them “working” for me, for what is supposed to be my dream, man, that is too much! And all I ever did was asking a simple question: I got this thing in my mind. It is about music and art. Do you want to be a part of it? It seems so strange how far it all got. Recording, touring and meeting beautiful people. An extraordinary trip. And now we’ve reached this stage where 2L8 no longer belongs to me. 2L8 no longer belongs. It carries all kind of different dreams with a common goal. Living. Living with passion, a full life. 2L8 is an anarchist federation. Be serious for once! Alright, alright, just allow me to say that 2L8 is based on anarchist ideals. Equality, caring, compassion, no lust for money, no lust for prestige. Success is not the goal. That is not the plan. We do not wish to be part of a corrupted system that will award us with excellent reviews, interviews and photo shootings. This is not gain. This is loss. This life is empty. In vain. No. A solid denial. Are we a team? Is it just me? Can’t say for sure. I do not know. I say no commitment. We are constantly changing, evolving. People come and go. They take and they give.

This is about communication, this is about thought, this is about action, and this is about dialogue. A fragmentary dialogue (although it becomes a complete dialogue as I receive replies, thoughts, ideas, suggestions, all sort of different stories from time to time). And this is about music. Mindfuck music. But if our minds are already fucked full with the wrong kind of shit maybe we do need a new fuck. This is not about a pseudo positive – mind your own business way of thinking and living. This is about reality, about facing the true ugly face of the world, not a distorted reflection, without losing your strength. This is about dreaming. This is about sharing. This is about creating.

This is about music. About the way waveforms carry energy on and on. This is our life-force energy transforming into sound. Encoding, decoding, amplifying, and back to its initial state, a waveform, a stream of energy travelling in space and time till it transforms into some other kind of energy. Never vanishing. And we surely hope it transforms into human emotion. This is about art. About combining fine arts with music. I am a mouth. I will never be complete no matter how hard I shout it out loud. My body is poor but when you dance and I sing I have a new body. When you act I have a new face. When you project on a white sheet your images I am a part of a tale. And that’s about it my friends.

At last a manifesto. My intentions were just to explain a few things. How about that! And I didn’t explain anything. How about THAT!

About the past I no longer wish to speak. Past performances, past journeys, past dreams. They all have one thing in common. They are past. You can read previous posts, visit the gallery for some pics, videos. The future then? The future is an empty space, an idea that doesn’t truly exist. The present! Living in present tense. 2L8 are working on the presentation of the HE&SHE album which will be released next October unless something crazy happens (again). With a new label! Inner Ear! And as I already wrote this is about sharing. So we decided that the day HE&SHE hits the stores the same day it will also be available online to download. A free download that is. A gift for you friends of my soul. Also from November we’ll be on tour. This is future tense? Fuck it is. Ha ha. Let’s see what happens then. A day and then another. A step and then another and then another one and yet another one. But I am standing still my love. How could I possibly reach you? Shhhh… Easy now.

A new website will be launched following the new release. And I think that this will be the last post for the old website. Let’s wave goodbye the leaves guy then!

The blog http://theplacepromisedinourearlydays.blogspot.com/ from now on will host work in progress. There you will find a podcast with poorly sounding demos. And new manifestos maybe! He!

The text in Greek below is about composing the music for a theatrical play. An ancient Greek tragedy. Live dates. Ignore it.
Την Πέμπτη 21 και Παρασκευή 22 Αυγούστου στο Θέατρο Κήπου, Θεσσαλονίκη στις 9:15 παρουσιάζονται οι ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΔΑΙ του Ευριπίδη. (Δείτε παρακάτω)

That is all. Oh yeah, and something more!

JOIN THE RESISTANCE, FALL IN LOVE!

Truly yours, Kostas Vozikis