The first time I encountered the name "Yanni" was from one of my distant relative who had been listening to his Optimystique Album, in a Cassette, way back 18 years ago. At that time, I had not been exposed to World Music with my listening strictly limited to Rahman. I wasn't sure whether this particular incident happened before Yanni's Taj Mahal Concert or after. But, I just saw the Cassette Cover and moved on without even bothering to listen. Later, moving to Bangalore, I, inadvertently got a chance to download a Torrent, Frostwire. I don't know whether this Torrent still exists. But, at that time, I didn't realise that Frostwire going to be a watershed moment in altering my musical taste thereafter. After successfully downloading the Torrent, I didn't have a clear idea how to use or whom to listen. Randomly, I typed some artists whoever came to my mind like Elton John, Phil Collins, Mozart, Yanni. And in a few minutes, I got the musical pieces in my Desktop. That's how I stepped into the World Music from an average Tamil Film Soundtrack listener.
For the first few days, I was completely hooked to Easy Lover. I was blown away by its terrific energy, heavy Bass Guitars and Drums. Most of the day, the song would be screaming in my office speakers. Yes, this is one of the best advantages working in a Start-Up unlike boring service MNC's environment where a middle-aged manager would be chasing the resources asking the Test Case Count. Then, one fine evening, I suppose, a Thursday, in June 2007, I had one of the best musical experience ever in my life. While I was in my boring Manual Testing, the musical piece playing in my System just took me away from the work. To be honest, I could never capture those precious moments in my writing, still, I would try. The musical piece, which amazed me was "Keys to Imagination". Until then, I had never heard such a musical piece; it was so fresh; whether the Orchestration or the new sounds or a mix of Synthesisers with live instruments, I don't know. But it lifted my spirits immensely. Immediately, I switched to find what the song was and who composed it. That moment I found my Master - Yanni. Subsequently, each and every track of Yanni I heard heightened my emotions significantly. In the next few days, I almost became a devotee to Yanni.
In between work, I started seeing a majority of his videos in the YouTube. Unfortunately, at that time, I couldn't afford an iPod or a portable musical player. So, I started visiting Browsing Centres with the sole intention of listening to Yanni. In such scenario, one evening, my friend's friend came to my room with a Discman. I couldn't resist my temptation that I went to a nearby shop at Indira Nagar Planet M Store and bought a 399Rs DVD. Needless to say, my friend's friend saw me as a nutcase. Till he went back to his room, I was deeply lost in Yanni's Songs.
Actually, Yanni helped me to expand my musical boundaries. I realised the power of Instrumental Music. Through Yanni, I explored Beethoven, Mozart, Ilaiyaraaja, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Vivaldi. I started paying attention to the Orchestration and the instruments part of it. He made me single out Oboe, Clarinet, Cello, Bass Guitar sounds in an Orchestration. I remember my bachelor days listening to his classic solo Album "In My Time" at midnight alone in a room. By chance, I found his memoir in the Landmark, Koramangala and grabbed it in spite of its huge price(785 INR).
It is one of best biography I've ever read. There wasn't a dull moment; it was simple, engaging, and very inspiring.
So, what draw him to Music?
Music was in their family. His mother was a good singer; during the weekends, post-lunch, she used to sing with Yanni's brother playing an instrument and Yanni supervising it without knowing the Music. Yanni remembers his childhood days; one of the main reason to learn music was to impress the girls. Strumming a Guitar, he used to sing down the girl's house only to father threw a bucket of water from the window. That day he stopped singing and started concentrating on analyzing the score. He was a self-learner. Luckily, his home was close to a theater. He could clearly hear the background scores playing in the movie. In particular, he was attracted to Ennio Morricone musical pieces. Besides, he had his portable Radio where he listened to all kinds of Music - Jazz, Middle East, European. But here his life took a sudden turn. His town Kalamata was a port town. So, most of the people were natural swimmers. Without any coaching or prior experience, he agreed to participate in Athens Swimming championship. He came first in the under 19 Championship and set a new national record in Greece.
But this didn't go for long as he felt he wasn't super-fit to become a champion in Olympics. He quits the swimming coaching and leaves to America for his higher studies. There, he stays with his elder brother in the Campus; finds an old Piano in one of the room. He practices, and slowly gets returned to music after a hiatus.He sets up a room, buys Synthesizers and starts writing down the small musical pieces. In between, he gets acquainted with Bands and tours most parts around Minnesota as a Keyboard player. Finally, he concludes and settles to compose his own set of music. Interestingly, most of the Radio Stations except few couldn't find a slot for his compositions as they were instrumentals.
Yanni doesn't like the way Media labels him as New Age (mainly used for Meditation - Birds, Water Falls, Om Chants) Composer. In fact, he prefers contemporary Instrumental. He has an Orchestra that has LIVE instruments as well as Synthesisers.
