Genre/Influences: Space-pop, electro-pop, cinematographic.

Content: Iris Manta is the musical creation of Greek artist Manos Zafirakis who was contaminated by the music virus some 20 years ago now. He started playing guitar and became involved in a band called Emerald. He progressively became interested in electronics and started to experiment with synthesizers, effects, microphones ao.

“Mental Equations” is the debut album of the Iris Manta project on, which you instantly will notice the omnipresent ‘space’ presence. Zafirakis indeed is really fascinated by the creation of space atmospheres, which are the main basis of this work. It not only is an evasive and relaxing trip through enjoyable electronic creations, but this sound also has a strong cinematographic appeal.

The typical astral sound waves mixed with slow rhythms and warm synth layers feel like an imaginary space walk. Some rare robotic (vocoder) vocals can be heard right in the beginning, which only accentuates the global impression of ‘space-electronics’. This artist clearly appears to be a passionate sound creator, which comes through in some of the bass lines, and also in the numerous sophisticated bleeps.

The style of this music clearly reminds me of famous pioneers in the genre like J.M. Jarre. The composition is well-crafted and sophisticated revealing several beautiful songs. I can’t get away from the idea that this work would be the perfect soundtrack for a movie and/or documentary while a live performance accompanied by a strong visual content would be cool as well.

Conclusion: Iris Manta brings us back to the origins of electronic pioneers. You can literally feel the love of this artist for electronic music inspired by the magic of space.

Best songs: “Subatomic”, “Mental Equations”, “Entropia”.

Rate: (DP:7½)DP.

Band: www.facebook.com/pages/Iris-Manta/767551936654269