About Harri Kakoulli

Harri has been involved in writing, producing & mixing world music for the last fifteen years. He also has worked as an artist, writing & producing his own work. He's now built a formidable reputation as one of the world's leading producers of world music. He has over the years gathered great reviews. 

Harri produced, created & mixed the first two compilation albums Fuse 1 and Fuse 2 and recorded tracks as an artist, producer, engineer and writer under the name Loca with Natacha Atlas and Uzma with Natacha Atlas & Zaharema for legendary world music label Nation Records. He has recorded collaborations with many of the top world music artists. Harri has produced, mixed & recorded tracks for the great King Sunny Ade, Talvin Singh, Aki Nawaz (Fundermental), Joi and the first four albums for the legendary Ukranians. .

Harri worked for eight months in Nigeria with various artists and collected some unusual sounds for future projects. Since then he's been working on his own material in London and Cyprus.

Reviews

INSIDE OUT "This guy has been everywhere, with everyone, from Africa to Ministry of Sound!
He started the Ethnic World Dance scene some fifteen years ago, a touch ahead of schedule. Pioneer or what?"
Tony Dynamou

CYPRUS MAIL "A handful of people have come along in my musical life and moved me directly, Harri's a genius, put simply, and a vastly underrated one at that"
Haji Mike

"Mmmm what can I say, I can only guess at the amount of hard-work, devotion and love that goes into this creation.
I listen to the album and I feel like I am living a journey with you, travelling through cultures, languages and divides, it makes me feel calm and confident and I lust after the spiritual instinctive, global edge that it leaves me with when I listen to it.
I'd compare it to an orchestral movement, at the moment I feel like it is one beautifully crafted part or the movement.
Love the layering of it; love the build up, the beauty and elegance of the tracks."

MIDWEST RECORDS This boy is well travelled; from playing bass with Squeeze to working with King Sunny Ade and Natasha Atlas, he has some resume. This world fusion outing finds him paying musical tribute to his departed father and it’s quite a crackling, passionate date indeed. A very touching and affecting work, this is sure to ping a reaction from anyone who has felt something deeply and needs a focus to release those feelings.
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher ©2007 Midwest Record

As the bassist for the 80s band Squeeze Harri Kakoulli has been around the block more than a few times. He's worked with world music artists like King Sunny Ade and trip hopper Talvin Singh so it's not beyond his reach to do a bhangra infused electronica album. This EP was a tribute to the memory Kakoulli's father and features a couple introspective tracks with sacred chanting in addition to the more energetic bhangra club tunes (favourites were "Love Exotico" and "Kuzima"). This EP is another definite winner and well worth the $3.95
Tomdog

Waveform Transmissions vol 1 (Compilation) Harri Kakoulli * Bliss Like Gold – World Music at it's very best with a bit of a house beat that never hurts. The song Kuzima, brings the sounds of a transcending journey over far away lands and throws it into your chest with a four on the floor .
Zero One - Ozone -

Bliss Indeed: WOW!! The title track is an amazing mix of arabic electronica and gregorn chants, very unique and haunting. This EP is a small treasure of global chill and global dance.
Soundtracker. """""

All Music Guide. Listen to this EP, and you would never guess that Harri Kakoulli got his start as the bass player for Squeeze. Instead, you might guess that he was a roadie for African Head Charge on their Finnish tour, or that he'd spent his early years sitting in with the Bombay Dub Orchestra. Bliss Like Gold is a rich and emotionally complex listening experience, in part because the music emerged from Kakoulli's anguish following the death of his father. But also because it brings together a broad spectrum of musical traditions -- sacred choral music, keening solo plain chants, Middle Eastern percussion, African rhythms, house, electronica -- and blends them into something that sounds both ancient and completely new. The title track takes relentless (but not overaggressive) percussion of the type one might hear on a Muslimgauze album, and pairs it with the kind of modal vocals one might hear from Dead Can Dance. "Evil Touch" fuses polyphonic choral singing with quiet Eastern percussion to absolutely gorgeous effect; "Kuzima" brings a house beat into the mix, then suddenly switches to a one-drop reggae groove. Throughout the program, there's something just slightly creepy tugging at the underside of this beautiful music, and the effect is really quite stunning. Very highly recommended. ~
Rick Anderson, All Music Guide.

Harri Kakoulli: The sound he creates has made him one of the world's leading and sought after producers of world music, and as an artist in his own right collaborating with many other artists to create music that one cannot help but be swept up by.Wild Planet Radio.

Comments left on Harri's MySpace page

Your music is pure magic! Beautiful!

Beautiful vibes here ! You're a true wizard

You scare me

What can I say, fantastic music. Truly mesmerising!

You are a special musician : your "vision", deep and fine Soulful music with no boundaries. Absolutely beautiful music.

Amazing, amazing and amazing music!

I'm stopping by to listen your great work. I really love your tracks...

Nice to be back into your deep quality sound ! there's always a good trip here

I listened to your Incredible Music...Wow! Your compositions are as clear, mysterious, piercing to the soul, intense, passionate and seductive as your eyes in your photo.... Listening to your music made every muscle in my body move. My feet could not stop dancing and my mind was racing with thoughts of being able to choreograph a Flamenco dance to one of your pieces. ~ You have the soul of a dancer as your music has the ability to let people see the musical notes dancing with their ears, , , , OLE!

Pure class of the highest level. Beautiful. Evocative. Captivates from beginning to end. An enchanted journey into new worlds I will visit again & again

I cried when I listened to your songs. Because the songs are beautiful

I feel like a child as I listen to your amazing music

What stunning work you have created, it is beyond beautiful.

Your music is superb, will be back to listen again, and again

Love what YOU do! Your weaving with music, sounds & voices are amazing...intimate, atmospheric, breathing the essence...

I'm taken away to another place by Cry my soul Beautiful!

Awesome vibe! your music takes me to another world where cigars and fine scotch are everywhere!

It is not often that I come across, or someone so gracefully crosses my path with such a sound that it leaves me speechless

Brilliant atmospheres here, something of a discovery indeed, ethereal, entrancing… take a walk on the Byzantine side

Wow, just in what I have heard in the beginnings of Love Like Heaven, I am hooked!! :)

My senses were enchanted from the very first note.

Your music is not of this world.

Wow, you are amazing, a true genius in the field of ambient music!

This is music to "breathe" into your soul! It has a healing quality about it.

Masterfully done Harri!! Keep up the good work and thanks for opening my eyes to yet another great artist

It Goes Without Saying Your Music Is Special Well Done On Bringing Your Visions To Our Ears

Absolutely amazed All i can say is thank you one hundred thousand times for your musical presence, bless you,

May our most Holy and Gracious Saint Irene Chrysovalantou guide you and protect you always Harri. God bless you.

Just some of the recordings featuring Harri

Fuse 1
Nation

Fuse 2
Nation

Nation Records (The story so far)
Nation

Global Sweatbox
Nation

Global Sweatbox Featuring Fabio Paras & the D Remixes
Nation

Global Pressure
Nation

Global Warming
Nation

Global Chilling
Nation

Ella Gonda Mu
Nation

Ella Ella
Nation

Select Cuts from Nation
Select Cuts

Turn on the Hits, Jocelyn Brown
Bellaphon

Absolutely, Jocelyn Brown
Sony/Epic

The Hits, Jocelyn Brown
Sony/Epic

Vorony, The Ukrainians
BMG

Pisnilz the Smiths EP
Cooking Vinyl

The best of the Ukrainians
Cooking Vinyl

Istoriya
Cooking Vinyl

The Rough Guide's Asian Beatbox
World Music Network

The Rough Guide to the Asian Underground
World Music Network

The Future Sound of London
Essential Mix

Hip Guide to Marakesh
Beechwood

Arabic Beats
Beechwood

Arabic Chillout II
Beechwood

Bombay Lounge
Beechwood

Hip Spiritual Lounge
Hip Holistics

Bombay Beats
bar De Lune

The Yin Yang Room
bar De Lune

Café Arabica
Park Lane Recordings

Café arabesque
Park Lane Recordings

Guru: Gift of Love
Eros Music

Guru: Gift of Love II
Eros Music

Guru: Gift of Love III
Eros Music

Global Beach Party
Mukta

Dreams in Ayia Napa
Mukta

Che Ve Re
Mukta

The Collections
Mukta

We Are the World
Mukta

Made In Greece
Clubstar

Haji Mike Meets Dirty Harri Volume 1
Axion Productions

MC DiscoHouse
MasterCuts

Dancemania
Ricordi

Helter Skelter Anthology
Helter Skelter

Trix in the Mix Mad Professor
Club Reggae

Harri has worked with the following artists:

Maxi Priest

Jocelyn Brown

King Sunny Ade

Natacha Atlas

Malcolm Mclaren

Talvin Singh

Jah Wobble

Aki Nawaz (Fundamental)

Joana Lewie

Ukrainians

Joi

Haji Mike

The Wedding Present

Oliver Cheatham

Andy Weatharal

Tall Paul

Youth

Imagination

The Only Ones

Squeeze

Smiley Culture

Carl Douglas

Sandra Cross

Eric Donaldson

Asher Senator

The late Freddie Makey

The Late Merchent