Incirrina interview: ‘Searching for wondrous , meaningful diversions , novel transformations and transitory acts of care and defiance’
The Greek duo—comprising George Katsanos and Irini Tiniakou—formed their musical alter ego, Incirrina, in Athens in 2017. This year, they released their third full-length album, “Trace”, via the German label Cold Transmission Music. Over the years, their sound and influences have steadily evolved from Dark-Wave towards a style leaning more towards Minimal/Electro-Wave, featuring Irini’s icy vocals. The result is a distinctive soundscape that evokes a sense of 1980s nostalgia through its cold analogue tones. I caught up with the duo for an entertaining and informative chat, and they left a lasting impression on me—not only as passionate artists, but also as incredibly kind and appreciative people. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: “Trace” is already your third full-length album. Looking back on everything you’ve achieved so far, how do you view your journey as a band? And how would you describe and introduce this new record to people who may not have heard it yet?
George: Indeed, after the releases of the albums “8.15” (2019) and “Lip Led Scream” (2022), we are happy to have our third LP “Trace” out by the label Cold Transmission, released 29.5.2026.
We consider the band as a space for exploration, experimentation, personal expression, also as an inner journey and diving into our souls. Incirrina has brought us the joy of sharing our music with people across multiple countries. Until now we have toured in 12 European countries and played in many gigs and Festivals, which led to beautiful and completely new experiences.
Irini: In this album, we experimented with instrumentation, rhythm and vocal approach. We used a combination of analogue synthesizers, drum machines, octapad, electric bass guitar, electric piano and acoustic instruments such as kantele, waterphone, melodica. “Trace” includes 11 songs written between 2023-2025 in a 24-channel console, that belong in the genres of Dark-Electronic, Synth-Wave and Cold-Wave. The Minimal-Synth and Post-Punk roots of our previous albums are still obvious, yet the new songs are enriched with dynamism, depth, and rhythmic diversity and we also explored new ways of delivering the vocals for this album.
Also we would like to note that this album is the result of the collaboration of many people who put their heart and talent into it, and we are grateful to them -these people are Dimitris Dimitriadis (mixing), Anestis Psaradakos (mastering), uBuDancer (ArtWork-AnalogueCollage), Nestor Theophilopoulos (photography), Maria Deligiorgi/Infrared Media (Layout) and Suzy Hermann and Andreas Hermann of Cold Transmission.
Q: If I’m not mistaken, you’ve been active for almost ten years now. How did Incirrina come into being, and how have both your collaboration and the band itself evolved over the years?
George: Our common journey as Incirrina started in late 2017. Since both of us are professional musicians and music teachers, we’ve been involved in numerous bands and projects and music has always been the center of our lives, but neither of us had ever been in a purely synth band before. It was a great pleasure to discover already in our first meeting, in September 2014, that we had the exact same taste in music- we were talking for hours about Jean Michel Jarre, Joy Division, The Cure, Kraftwerk and numerous others…
We became a couple, still the timing for forming a band wasn’t right yet- we were working hard in teaching and the other projects, and simply didn’t have the time to start something new together. But in 2017 life brought things together in such a way that conditions were created for something new to be born. Incirrina came into life with the aim to make music in the style we’ve deeply loved since we were teenagers.
Irini: The first tracks were written right in our living room. Although I do write lyrics, we chose to base our songs on the poetry of William Blake, an artist we both deeply adore. After recording 6 songs, and without thinking twice, we uploaded them on Bandcamp (this was the first EP “8.15”; in December 2018), and suddenly something clicked. We received an unexpected wave of enthusiasm from complete strangers. Essentially, we started with no expectations other than making songs that we liked. It was magical how this evolved.
One year later, in late 2019, the Greek label Geheimnis Records released “8.15” as an LP -the first 6 songs plus 5 new ones. Then COVID hit. During those strange years of isolation, we wrote the songs for our second album, “Lip Led Scream”, which was released by Cold Transmission in August 2022. One thing naturally led to another; some months before the lockdown, we had received an invitation to perform in Germany, in Slow Club Freiburg, a show that finally came to life in May 2022. That was the spark that started this beautiful adventure of European tours and live shows.
In the years leading up to this year’s release of “Trace”, we focused on live performances as well as exploring new sounds and we also scored two theatrical plays in Athens. We are quite strict with our music , even though we compose new tracks very quickly, the ones we choose to release are very few (for every track we release, about four or five others are left behind).
George: We really enjoy jamming and playing together, most of our tracks come alive through this very process. But there are also songs written entirely by one of us, then the other one enriched or reshaped them, regarding arrangement or structure. While we co-write the harmonic and melodic elements of our songs and handle the arrangements together, our individual roles are quite distinct. I focus on the rhythmic side, taking care of the live drums and drum programming, also the basslines and the riffs, while Irini handles the vocals.
Q: One of the defining characteristics of your music is your use of analogue synthesizers. That seems like a very deliberate choice. What is it about analogue synths that continues to inspire you, and how has this aspect of your sound evolved over the years, particularly on “Trace”?
George: Indeed, we have a great love for analog sound and analog synthesizers. Of course, there are plenty digital instruments we really like and also use. I adore Moog synthesizers, their rich harmonic sound fills the ear with very distinct frequencies. I love that you can never have the exact same sound. The instruments that I use do not have a ‘preset’ or ‘save’ possibility, so every time I make the sound from the beginning and I find this really thrilling. Analog synthesizers have personality; I feel like I’m using a sonic canvas when playing them, their sound has so many shades and details.
Irini: We’ve used analog synths on all of our albums. In “Trace”, we paired them with acoustic instruments and also some digital synths, like the AKAI MPC and the Yamaha PS-55. Even though the Yamaha is digital, it’s from way back in 1983, and its sound has this nostalgic warmth that really speaks to us. Our relationship with instruments is just like with people… we have great chemistry and love for some, while others we just can’t connect with at all! An instrument is a whole world of its own, and a single sound can inspire an entire song.
Some tracks started out just from a single sound, like the song “She Is In The Dream”. We also love building lots of layers and textures when it comes to orchestration, and our analog synths are perfect for mixing and layering in different ways.
Q: Are you essentially a duo or more of a trio? I ask because I noticed that your lyrics are not always written by the two of you. Could you explain how that collaboration works, and how the lyrical themes develop in relation to your own musical ideas?
Irini : Musically speaking, we’re definitely a duo; the two of us write and play all the music, and we handle everything that goes into running a band. But at the same time we also have a ‘secret’ third member. This is the poet Konstantinos Londos, whom we are lucky enough to have in our lives as a very special and dearly loved friend. He wrote the lyrics for our last two albums (with the exception of two songs, one on each record).
Konstantinos puts what we feel and want to communicate into words in the most wonderful way. Working with him is magical. A lot of times we’ll discuss a topic that’s really on our minds, and then Konstantinos will write a poem about it… and just like that, we have the lyrics for a song. Other times, we picked some of his existing poems that spoke to our hearts, set them to music, and turned them into songs (like “Mutate” and “Alien Room”).
But either way, there’s always an incredible creative process between the 3 of us – we listen together to the musical ideas, discuss the meaning of the lyrics, how the words flow melodically, and their deeper impact. In the end, after plenty of changes and fine-tuning (and sometimes after a lot of tears) the song finally takes its true shape. Konstantinos has a rare gift for clarity, simplicity, humor, sensitivity and working together with him is really a pleasure. He is an explosive mix of a brilliant Renaissance man, a Homo Universalis, and someone who genuinely prefers to stay out of the spotlight.
Q: Speaking of the lyrics, “Trace” is an intriguing title that can be interpreted in many different ways. The album also explores profound and, at times, rather introspective themes. Could you tell us more about the concept behind the album? And to what extent do the lyrics shape the atmosphere of the music—or is it sometimes the other way around?
Irini: Finding the right album title is usually a tricky process, since it needs to capture a lot of different concepts in just a few words. But with “Trace”, things were easier – the title came about completely spontaneously from Konstantinos, right after a chat about what making this album meant to us. The word means ‘imprint’; and that’s exactly what this record is: the footprint of a collaboration between people trying to capture in sounds and words the things that spark their thoughts and haunt their nights. This is also stated in the album’s back cover: “Trace”; is the imprint of ‘searching for wondrous , meaningful diversions , novel transformations and transitory acts of care and defiance’.
Thematically the songs deal with the uniqueness of human experience and the struggle of not losing one’s inner freedom and individuality in dystopian times – the ‘seeming real’; where all that is imposed and inhumane presents itself as the inevitable truth (“Always Here”). Celebrating diversity and self-expression, but always connecting and creating with other people, is a way out (“Mutate”). And the album itself is the result of such a process; we consider ourselves, against the odds, as artisans and friends who make music, share it and reinvent ourselves. Other songs cover universal, age-old themes like love, loneliness, the fear of loss, pain of death (“Sometimes”, “Region”), also the relationship with oneself and the connection with the world outside (“Diver”, “Find”), themes like the dream element, the urban landscape, and mysterious, fairy-like figures are touched upon in the songs “Alexia”, “Presence”, “She Is In The Dream”; burning issues of our time like domestic violence (“Alien Room”); and how the ‘self’ connects with today’s world, showing endless introspection but a lack of empathy, human pain, and the way we try to hide it even from ourselves (“ΚΡΥΦΟ”; – means “Hidden”); which is the only track in Greek language).
George: Since songwriting is a two-way street, as we described earlier, the atmosphere that is created depends on each individual song. When we start composing music for an existing poem, we are influenced by the content, the meaning of the lyrics, and the rhythm of the words and syllables. Conversely, Konstantinos would often listen to a musical theme we had composed and write lyrics over it, based on a topic that was on our minds and that we had been discussing. However, since the general vibe of our music and lyrics is already introspective and relatively dark, we take it for granted that we won’t stray from that… not out of principle, but because the darker element simply speaks to us emotionally and temperamentally.
Q: How do you approach your live performances? More specifically, how do you translate the layered studio recordings, and especially the analogue elements, to the stage?
George: Βeing a duo has a lot of advantages, like flexibility with rehearsals, the creative process, and traveling. But also has plenty of challenges… Practically speaking, if we wanted to perform our tracks live with their full studio orchestration, we would definitely need at least one more musician on stage. Our compromise is to use backing tracks for the drums, or a portion of them while I play the rest, and then we perform the melodic and bass lines live. We inevitably have to skip several elements from the album… still that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a live performance, because different things take priority on stage. Also, for gigs, we bring along smaller gear. It would be practically impossible for just two people to travel carrying the actual instruments we used to compose and record, so we adapt our sound to smaller, more flexible instruments, which are a mix of analog, hybrid, and digital instruments. When we play in our hometown, things are much easier and we can bring along some of the original (and heavy) instruments used in the recording. But when it comes to touring abroad, since we travel by plane and train, doing that would totally be out of the question for practical reasons.
Irini: Over time, we’ve rearranged some tracks for our live shows to such an extent that they end up sounding quite different from the studio recordings, in terms of orchestration, tempo, and also vocals. This is especially true for songs from our first album. Also, since we love improvisation, we play the tracks a bit differently at almost every gig. We add intros, change up some riffs, and basically transform them depending on the mood of the moment. It would be really interesting at some point to make an album with our older songs exactly as they are played live, in a live recording setup. This happened already with one song , the “Only One Smile Alone”; the original one is “The Smile”; and following the suggestion of Andreas Hermann, we recorded it again in the way we play it live.
Q: Finally, with an album title like “Trace”, it seems only natural to ask: what kind of trace do you hope this album—and Incirrina’s music in general—will leave behind? And what lies ahead for the band in the coming months?
Ιrini: What we truly want with all our hearts is this: for people who will listen to our music, to feel something, to be moved, to dance, to feel good, or to find a personal meaning in our songs. Through our music, we aren’t seeking self-expression as much as we are seeking connection and co-motion, sharing in something as beautiful as music. We would love for the music of Incirrina to leave a small imprint of beauty in this world. Everything is fleeting and surely everything fades into the oblivion of time, but we would be incredibly happy if, even for just a few moments, we could bring joy to some people… just as we experience the joy of making songs and playing together, in rehearsals or in live shows.
George: In the coming months, we will mainly focus on presenting “Trace” through live performances in Greece and Europe. We definitely want to work on producing some new songs as well, and we also plan to celebrate our 10th anniversary as a band with something special, which we will announce in early 2027…!
Thank you for this interview, and we wish all the very best to you and your readers! Incirrina
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
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