Silver Koulouris

Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris (born 26 January 1947) is a Greek musician best known for his membership in the band Aphrodite's Child, in which he played lead guitar. He has also performed session work on a plethora of albums by other artists, including those of his former Aphrodite's Child bandmates, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in recent decades he has released solo recordings under his own name.

Born in Piraeus, Greece, Koulouris acquired the nickname "Silver" due to his birth name's similarity to the Greek word for the element silver. In converting his given name from the Greek alphabet, many different spellings of his name have emerged, such as Anargyros, Argyris, Argiris, Anarchyris, Anachyros, and Agyrilos.

In his late teenage years, Koulouris met Demis Roussos, who played bass guitar, and Lucas Sideras, a drummer, with whom he went on to play guitar in a band called The Idols in and around Athens, Greece. Because he was in the Greek Army at the time, Koulouris was able to play with The Idols only occasionally, but he maintained a connection with Roussos and Sideras that would prove to be key to his future musical career.

In 1966, Roussos and Sideras met keyboardist and composer Vangelis Papathanassiou, and in 1968, the three decided to form a band, inviting Koulouris to join as their guitarist. That same year, the foursome recorded one single, "Plastics Nevermore" b/w "The Other People," under the name Aphrodite's Child. As the band prepared to travel to England to find greater success, Koulouris' military obligations once again impeded his musical career, and he had to stay in Greece while the remaining three established Aphrodite's Child further west.

By 1970, Koulouris was out of the military and free to rejoin the band. He provided lead guitar and assorted percussion on the group's groundbreaking studio LP, 666. One of his most notable moments on the record is his solo on the track "The Four Horsemen"; according to music critic George Starostin, Koulouris' performance on that song was "a brilliantly constructed wah-wah solo... which has not just the finest guitar playing on the album, but simply happens to be one of the greatest guitar solos ever played — and I am not joking: no one would ever suspect Koulouris of being an unsurpassed technical virtuoso, but somehow he managed to properly pick up all the epic chords and come out with a flying monster that could easily stand its ground next to Dave Gilmour in terms of emotional impact." Due to conflict within the band and tensions with their record label, Aphrodite's Child had broken up by the time the album was released, so Koulouris was left to find a new musical direction for himself.

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