Biography
Konstantis Pistiolis is a Greek multi-instrumentalist, composer and performer, best known as the clarinetist and folk-instrumentalist of Villagers of Ioannina City (VIC). Born in Athens in 1990 and of Konitsa, Epirus, origin, he studied clarinet and other wind instruments at the Music Experimental Gymnasium-Lyceum of Pallini. His musical background is rooted in the traditional music of Epirus, but his work extends well beyond it, incorporating psychedelic and stoner rock, experimental music, improvisation and, more recently, film scoring.
Pistiolis joined Villagers of Ioannina City around 2012, becoming an important part of the band's distinctive sound. VIC, formed in Ioannina in 2007, combine heavy psychedelic and stoner rock with traditional Greek music, particularly the musical traditions of Epirus. Pistiolis' clarinet and kaval are central to this combination, often taking the role normally occupied by a lead guitar. He appears on the band's early material and on their first full-length album, *Riza* (2014), as well as the *Zvara/Karakolia* EP released later that year. *Riza* established VIC as one of the most distinctive bands to emerge from the Greek underground, while Pistiolis' playing became one of the defining elements of their sound.
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VIC followed *Riza* with *Age of Aquarius* in 2019, expanding their sound into a more psychedelic and atmospheric direction while retaining the use of traditional instruments. Pistiolis' involvement with the band also continued into their live work, including the *Through Space & Time – Alive in Athens 2020* release and film. In the live setting he has performed not only clarinet and kaval but also trumpet, didgeridoo, various winds and backing vocals.
Outside VIC, Pistiolis has been involved in a large number of collaborations within the Greek music scene. He has worked with artists including Giannis Charoulis, Thanasis Papakonstantinou, Vangelis Kazantzís, Chaineides and Matoula Zamani, moving between traditional, folk, singer-songwriter and alternative music. His instrumental range is particularly broad, including clarinet, kaval, flute, trumpet, bagpipe, melódica, didgeridoo and handpan. On Vangelis Kazantzís' *To Metaxy Mas Diastima* (2019), for example, he is credited with clarinet, trumpet, handpan and didgeridoo.
His personal work became more prominent with *Xenitemena*, released in 2023. The album draws heavily on the musical traditions of Epirus while treating them through a contemporary and experimental approach. Rather than presenting traditional repertoire in a strictly conventional form, Pistiolis combines clarinet and other folk instruments with a modern ensemble and elements of improvisation and sound experimentation. The album was subsequently presented live in a number of concerts during 2024.
Pistiolis has also increasingly worked as a composer for film. He composed the music for the documentary *Kainourgios Ouranos: Oi Gynaikes ston Dimokratiko Strato Elladas* (2021), followed by music for *Apeiros* (2022) and *Pente Fores Xenos* (2023). His most prominent film-scoring work to date is Dimitris Nakos' *Kreas* (*Meat*, 2024), for which he composed the original score. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024 and subsequently screened at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and CinéMed in Montpellier.
Pistiolis' music is consequently difficult to place within a single genre. The clarinet and the musical vocabulary of Epirus remain the most recognisable elements of his work, but they appear in very different contexts: heavy psychedelic rock with VIC, Greek folk and traditional music, experimental solo performances, collaborations with other musicians and cinematic composition. His approach to traditional instruments is less concerned with preserving a fixed musical form than with exploring how their sound can function within contemporary music.
For listeners who first encounter him through VIC, Pistiolis is the musician whose clarinet gives the band's heavy psychedelic sound much of its distinctly Greek character. His wider discography, however, shows a considerably broader musician, moving between traditional music, rock, experimentation and film music while maintaining the sound of Epirus as a recurring point of reference.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.