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Jasper Project

Jasper Project is an experimental/indie folk band from Piraeus, Greece that was formed near the end of 2020. They keen on shoegaze, punk, post-punk, drone, blackgaze, alternative rock and love DIY productions.

Their first EP “Requiem"which is consisted of five tracks was uploaded on YouTube in August of 2021. It was supposed to be the launch of 2 albums, since they thought it would be nice to explore the difference between the tracks' sound something they inherited early on from Half Twin Brother, their biggest inspiration, whose albums are always dissimilar to each other and have a unique feel and aesthetic. Furthermore two of the tracks(Thoughts, My Dress Got Stolen) and some thrown lyric ideas where originally demos that Valeskas wrote for his previous band with the help of his brother and Panos Spanos(Seaside Hotel Room Fantasy,Half Twin Brother)as bass players, while the first versions of ‘’Endless Tango’'and ‘’Valse’’were written during jams of Valeskas, Tolis, and Alex Spyrou(Half Twin Brother) who also wrote the entirety of ‘’Valse’’ a gift he gave to the band. Then Nikitas Vazouras, Achilles Nikas and Swtiris Voyiatzakis entered the band, finalizing the parts for the songs to take the shape they have now.

After a bit of talking they changed their minds and went with the plan of putting all five tracks into one album.

Its name ‘’Requiem’’ comes from Mozart’s famous music piece of the same name, more specific from the scene of its composition from the movie ‘’Amadeus’’ where Salieri helps Mozart by writing down the piece’s sheet music before Mozart’s death interupts them from finishing it. Valeskas viewed ‘’Immobile Poets’’(last song on the album and a challenge he took on in order to write something simillar to his favourite song Half Twin Brother’s ‘’Mrs. Pumpkin’’)as the band’s masterpiece at the moment, so the help he recieved from Alex during the song’s 10-hour recording process(as well as through the rest of the album) easily translated into that exact scene from the movie, two great song writers in the same room, one with melodies for a huge song in his mind but who lacks the abillity of writing them down to visible form and another who’ll help him give birth to it as imagined. Guitars,Basses,Pianos and Vocals were recorded with cheap home studio equipment inside Jasper Project and Half Twin Brother’s rehearsal room in the Meat Market using the Reaper DAW in Alex’s laptop while the Drum parts were recorded in Nordi’s(Half Twin Brother) home using his electriconic drum set.

Later on 28/02/2022 they released ’Yes’’ as a single of ‘’218’’ their follow up album which took more than they thought to be recorded due to its endless changes made by Valeskas who always kept coming up with new ideas for how the final album should sound like and yet what it represented. After all it seems like the album is coming out early October of 2023! ‘’218’’ will be a concept album, it tells the story of Znagrzv a being that used to be a human named Tom but was cursed by Znqrzv ,an evil entity, while trying to save his loved one. Unable to show emotions Znagrzv holds the opinion he can reverse his curse by dropping a tear, a sign showing he can still feel and that there’s a little bit of humanity inside of him, so he goes into places that were important to him due to the memories he made there with his loved one. It’s a story about inertia and the importance of choosing an option by yourself.

It has more of a band and less of a one man project character when being compared to ‘’Requiem’’ since this time all members had more creative freedom on the making of the songs. Taking into consideration the arrival of new members Aris Theocharis,Danae Gomez, Andreas Papapanosand all those different inspirations they’ve been exposed to during its two years of making from ‘’old time favourites’’Xiu Xiu and Nouns to Rigoletto and Phantom of the Opera this led to a new sound getting born.

On the 30th of July 2022 they uploaded ‘’Step’’ a tune which will lead to ‘’Pride of The Toxic Breed’’an album prequel to the events of ‘’218’’ which is going to show how Tom came to be transformed into Znagrzv.

Two months later on 21/09/2022 Jasper Project released ‘’Sanguinary Feast’’ on Spotify. Similar to ‘’Immobile Poets’’this song was composed really quick in comparison to their other tunes. It’ll be part of another concept album named ‘’The View From The Way Down’’ an acoustic one featuring a new character named Child Groom and telling his story. ‘’Sanguinary Feast’’ is one of Jasper Project’s favourite tunes, from its concept to the melodies and lyrics that emerge. It took lots of inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s book ‘’De Profundis’’ a book Valeskas loves and inspired him both in this track and through ‘’218’’as well.

It’s also the first track from their discograhy to have a music video made for it, released on 10/05/2023.

Jasper Project started playing alongside bands as Morphing Jar, Honeyshame and Half Twin Brother. The friendship they created gave birth to their first ever live performance at Skopeftirio Kaisarianis on 03/07/2021 a day they will always count as one of the most beautiful and important days of their lives. That day marked the beginning of a new plan, a team that Jasper Project and Half Twin Brother would later form named ‘’Meat Market Palace’’ its purpose being the arranging of different events such as jam nights, live performances and art exhibitions.

At the moment Jasper Project are active in Greece, performing in local live venues ,working on new tunes and future album ideas . They are currently consisted of George Valeskas,Tolis Brakoulias,Achilles Nikas,Aris Theocharis and Danae Gomez