It's Constantinople, not Istanbul

>> Local duo DNA have Byzantium in their blood

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

"Two or three years ago," confesses DNA's lyricist/singer Athanasios Sklavis, "I was naive about the whole aspect of Byzantium. For some reason it was kept under a blanket of secrecy--a very mysterious aspect of history."

Today, he knows better. "It was the second half of the Roman empire. Constantine just about abandoned Rome because of the invasion of the Goths and the Vandals, the barbarians. He chose the site of the new capital because of its location--it was the gateway between occident and orient. It was an amazing empire that spanned over a thousand years."

A millennium after that, the mighty Constantinople is of course the Turkish capital Istanbul. The residue remains, though, especially in the genetic code of Sklavis and bouzouki wiz Dimitrios Kanaras, the duo that constitute the nucleus of DNA. Montrealers of first-generation eastern Greek descent, the pair neglected their heritage for years while doing the rawk thing, before a little bit of history jumped up and bit Sklavis on the ass. "I went to New York in '96, to an exhibit at the Met on Byzantium, and that's where I was infused with the spirit of the whole place. That's what awoke those dormant cells.

"It was a multicultural empire, the gateway from East to West, so there's all sorts of influences there. It's not like we said, 'Okay, we'll put a little Celtic here, a little Indian there.' It just happened that way. It's a tribute to the secular artists of the era, the mimes and dancers and actors, who were all a huge part of the ceremonies. That came from the pagan background of Greece, which wasn't looked upon very favourably by the church."

Because of this, finding raw material to work with has been nigh-on impossible, leaving the pair to guess their way around what a modern reflection of secular Byzantine tunes should be. "The manuscripts were actually burnt by the church," explains Sklavis, noting with a wink the parallels with modern rock 'n' roll. "At that point, just an instrument alone was considered an artifact of the devil. It was thought that only the human voice was divine enough to play music. It was the Dark Ages, after all."

The guys are hoping that, in these more enlightened times, there's a place for their opulent, psychedelic evocations of the past. They're already something of a pet project for the famous Morin Heights Studios, the Tea Party's Jeff Martin is in their corner and an album is on its way. "It's going to take a while," says Sklavis, but then, nobody builds an empire in a day. :

At Cabaret on Monday, May 8, 8pm (sharp!), $15