Music
Press
“Burn The Flag begins with tender folkpop, but takes a sharp turn into strange choir arrangements. The growing radiohit Sharpen Your Knife, follows with exiting guitar play and sneaky robot funk, like Gary Numan taught us.”
“The level of ambition is very high. It reminds me of progressive music from the 70´ties, and apart from Mew, there aren´t a lot of bands that work with that, in this country.”
- Soundvenue (important danish lifestyle mag.) review 4/6
“COYB joins the league of Danish indie bands, that has enormous potential – also internationally. As the band name implies, there are plenty of symphonic choir vocals, but this is much more than sad rock. Burn The Flag is beautiful and mesmorizing, but is is more than indie music, since the band has flair for pop. This is only an EP, but buy it anyway. It is a fantastic piece of art, that you can be one of the first to discover.” - Cover (large danish fashion mag.) review 5/5
“ A new hope!”
“Something bright and wonderful is happening in Danish rock”
“ It is rare that this newspaper does reviews of an EP, but it is also very rare to find such an obvious talent as Choir Of Young believers.”
“I listen to the apparent hit song Sharpen Your Knife, the same way I did, when I first heard Mew.”
- Politiken (large danish daily newspaper) review 5/6
“Enchanting indie tones on new Danish debut EP.”
“with 4 very different songs, the EP is remarkably coherent”
“The ambitions are too high to be just indie pop.”
“Choir Of Young Believers has the potential to release one of the best albums of 2008.”
- Diskant.dk (danish music website) review 8/10
Discography
EP "Burn The Flag" May 2007
Upcoming LP in September 2008
"Sharpen your knife" was pick of the week on P3 (National Radio)
It was also nr 1 on the year list of 2007 on the biggest indie chart in DK "Det Elektriske Barometer"
Photos
Bio
Choir Of Young Believers is a new Danish act, with great international potential. The man behind this band is the 25 year old, Danish, Greek and Indonesian Jannis Noya Makrigiannis. For many years, Jannis has moved in the underground circles of the Danish indie scene and been a part of the legendary band, Lake Placid. Since 2006 he has been working on his solo material, which has now resulted in the debut EP from Choir Of Young believers, called Burn The Flag.
The songs for the EP were written in Berlin, Copenhagen and in a small town on the Greek island Samos, where Jannis lived for a while. The acoustic demos has then been evolved and arranged with producer Anders Rhedin, who has played a big part in creating the unique sound on the EP. Musically, Choir Of Young Believers is located somewhere between low key folk and grandiose indie pop, ambitiously combining a cool Nordic distance with a true presence and vitality.
In spite of his young age, Jannis writes mature intelligent songs. The melodies are simple and beautiful while the arrangements surprises and overwhelms the listener. There are references to Roy Orbinson, The Beach Boys, Pixies and Hank Williams, but Choir Of Young Believers stands out as a bright example of alternative pop music with depth and quality.
Choir Of Young Believers is signed to Danish label Tigerspring, who in May 2007 released Burn The Flag nationally, to great reviews. The EP went straight to nr. 4 on the single chart in Denmark. The single Sharpen Your Knife was pick of the week on the biggest national radio station and also spent a maximum eight weeks at no. 1 of the national indie chart. Choir Of Young Believers performed at Roskilde Festival, before going on a national tour in the fall of 2007. In early 2008 COYB won two major awards in Denmark as talent of the year and hope of the year, so there are great expectations for the first full length album, which will be recorded during the spring and released in September 2008.
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