In Sisarcha, a small village at the foothills of Psiloritis, near Anogeia, within the Milopotamos’s vicinity, this old stone-built coffee house, which was built stone-by-stone and established by my grandfather Andreas Aerakis (a.k.a. Ninandreas) and my grandmother Eleni Kouvidi, was the nascence of our family, our life and our record career…

Stelios Aerakis, the eldest son of my grandfather, was raised with the principles of the genuine traditional music of Anogeia and generally of Crete. As far as Cretan music and record industry are concerned, he played the laouto and he cooperated with Nikos Xylouris, Psarantonis, Vasilis Skoulas and many other significant Cretan grand masters of the 20th century. In 1974, he established the first record store in Heraklion, while, at the same time, he was the exclusive authorized representative of Columbia Music Records in Crete. In 1976, he created the “Aerakis-Cretan Music Company” record company which evolved into the “Aerakis-Cretan Musical Workshop” record company, sealing the whole record evolution of Cretan music with the quality and the innovation of that time. Stelios Aerakis along with Michalis Aerakis’s cooperation, who is his brother and my father as well, forged their own path and they created, beyond doubt, a bright name in the field of Cretan music publication and production.

Eventually, deploying his experience and knowledge, Michalis Aerakis created the highly recognized “Seistron Music Editions” in 2001, combining different discrete elements, old and new, words and notes, music and books. He did his part in building the glorious castle of our tradition. Consequently, in my turn, I picked up the torch passed to me from my family, and I started taking steps little by little into the field of music record industry, in the hope of elevating it to new heights.

Preserving this precious cultural heritage of this field since 2009, I decided to give life back to my grandfather’s coffee house and name it “Rural Record Store”, in order to unite all the experiences I gained as a child and as a teenager, as well as to marry the sensations of the traditional coffee house with the music productions which we have in our track record since 1975. Furthermore, this will be the place where our work will be exhibited and various record and book presentations will be hosted. Also, our guests and visitors will have the opportunity to become familiar with the Cretan music and hospitality through our vivid tradition and the flavors of the seasonal local viands, so that the real core of Cretan lifestyle will be revealed to them.     

Future is something from the past.

The “Social Cooperative Enterprise of Collective and Social Benefit of Anogia” with the distinctive title “N-IDEA Cooperation”, is based in Anogia, Rethymno and was founded in November 2017. The company was established by 7 members from the area of Anogia and its main purpose is the collective and social benefit and the sustainable development. The activities aim, among others, at the production of products and the provision of services related to culture, environment, ecology, education, with services of public benefit, the promotion of local products, the preservation of traditional activities – professions, the protection of common goods, the protection and restoration of the natural environment, biodiversity and geodiversity, the strengthening of locally supported agriculture or livestock, the process of reducing waste production at local level, the production and promotion of independent cultural creation and finally, real estate management with social and environmental criteria. “N-IDEA Cooperation” includes infrastructures such as: the Shepherd’s House (theme park), a Music Study Area (material digitalization for artists) and the Archeological Information Center (exhibition of data and information from the excavation of Idaion Antro and Zominthos).