Qaraba Music and Graphics was founded in 2012 in Prague by Ī„annis Karampatzias (GR).
He performs on a variety of Greek and Turkish traditional stringed instruments including saz baglama (taburas), lavta (Constantinople lute), tzuras and baglamas.
The repertoire includes traditional folk music from the Asia Minor to the Black Sea focusing on melodies from Smyrna (Izmir) and Constantinople (Istanbul) of the early 1900’s, Rebetiko songs (undergound musical genre that was born at the end of the 19th century in hash dens and prisons of the Greek urban centers), Byzantine and Ottoman classical compositions emphasizing on the art of taxim (form of improvisation on non-occidental musical scales known as ‘makams/maqamat’).
In 2013 together with violinist Milan Jakes (CZ), guitarist Thomas Opata (GR/CZ) and Geraldine Baar (BEL) on koboloi they formed the Qaraba Ensemble.