Itenef

ITENEF have their part in the history of electronic music in Greece,as one of the primary acts in the late 80's
that created their sound purely by the use of electronics,when as In Trance 95 released a number of
neglected classics of modern electronica in a period that nobody or just a few did in the local scene. Formed
on 1988 by Alex Macheras and Nik Veliotis with Coti K.,their "soundman" and George Geranios the one to
complete the line-up and eventually replace Veliotis who followed an amazingly respected and important
career as a cello "improvisionist". They stopped releasing records as i.t.n.f on 1996 and their last live
performance took place in the summer of the same year. Alex and George started discussing to reform during
2004 and two years later with the addition of Magdalena Sverlander,(international model with a classical music
training but fully into sound experimentation) took the decision to bring back the band to life. In brief,this is
how the story goes

As Alex says:
"When I started IT95 or Itenef,bands like Clock DVA,Front 242 and SPK have just released important
records,at their peak,the godfathers Kraftwerk were returning,Depeche Mode & New Order were becoming
huge and first love OMD giving up their avant garde pop were capitalizing their success to the US while
Cabaret Voltaire were turning their sound to "detroit tecnho" remaining underground. Yello and mcKenzie
were colaborating again,while Carlos Peron after "You gotta say yes to another excess" starts his amazing
solo projects. At the clubs something was rapidly moving. Birth of EBM and soon there was about an explosion
to take place and new genres to be and all under the term Electronica today or simply Electro! The war of the
synth was won within less than 2 years and in the near future all combinations accepted when all the
influences and sounds mixed...
But that particular year of 1987 that I met Nik what would follow in music didn't matter when in dry athens
still there was nothing close to call it a scene. Europe was still far and away for a band living and creating in
Greece. Unless you decide to take fate in your hands and till a certain point we did.We managed to release
our records and play our live shows in low profile and all the effort was only ours helped by the heroic labels of
the time (wipe out and later elfish). We wanted avoid to label our sound or be many labels for it. but definitely
we were a electronic band from Greece! I was ambitious but impatient and we had a vision but not a manager
to guide us! So between 1988 to 1991 we managed to write enough material for I'd easily say 5 albums.
Managed to release one and lot of the rest divided in 12inch,7inch,compilations and CD releases.
A lot of it got lost with the master tapes and some got discovered later. When things started slowly moving
and there was a chance for us for a wider audience,this is when the band stopped releasing records. No
matter the love for analogue synths,rhythm boxes and all sorts of electronics, the main influence to write was
and is emotions of all kinds and those also can make you stop writing or also in my case not want to release
what you write! An unfinished project and spare appearances or singles once in a long while was the bigger
part of the 90's for us.
But my crazy -personal- lifestyle with the help of technology found again the time for a consistant effort to
do it again and soundwise the marriage of electro,avant garde and pop is a natural process if i had to name
what we write. Cinema pop,a french music journalist characterized our mainstream moments and neon
electro the metronomic dance tracks on the EP's right before we stopped back in 97, for sure we are not
playing trance,the roots of our name was before this genre was invented and therefore this is why IN TRANCE
95 got switched to ITENEF that is a more sound friendly way to pronounce the initials and still keeping the
same name. ITENEF today continue to be George Geranios and myself with the addition of the much younger
than us Magdalena Sverlander ..boards,bass and vocals."

Alex A. Machairas, airdawn studio July 14,2008.