The Memorable Debut of ‘Flight Mode’ in Tbilisi

Review

The band ‘Flight Mode’ consists of two violinists, a guitarist and a pianist and presents with no exact genre, combining jazz, post rock and ambience elements. On September 2, they held an event at ‘Backstage 76’ in Tbilisi.

This genre is quite a rarity for the Georgian audience. I would say that their sound bears a lilac-purple color, hinting at freedom floating nearby. One can travel in a boat on the river of their tunes. It is something new, at least among those musicians that I have heard in Tbilisi. Even the band members confess that they do not know anyone else playing the same mixed genre.

“We formed the band two months ago. Two of us are still students. There’s always a risk how the audience will take our music, but it’s sort of our obligation to play whatever we like,” Sandro Butikashvili, violinist, told GEORGIA TODAY. “We, the band, have been united thanks to our common musical taste. Two violins give the band a classical hue, adding an academic trait to music which is not completely academic.”

“We didn’t want to play outdated, old-fashioned genres- we’d rather play something new,” Rati Gvalia, pianist, told us. “That’s why we chose ambience, post rock and jazz. If you make music that is obsolete, you should do much better than the contemporary musicians did. It’s extremely difficult to achieve it, as the history of music knows a lot of brilliant works. A musician should search for a different path to offer something new and tasteful to listeners.”

Their music is as saturated in Georgian as in Asian and Egyptian folk tunes. Their debut in Georgia happened recently in Tserakvi village, Marneuli municipality, at the festival ‘One Caucasus,’ alongside other musicians from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan performing their creative works. The festival aimed at making friendly ties between the Caucasian nations. The public took the ‘Flight Mode’ performance very positively.

Maka Lomadze