Dimitris Koutantos grew up in the musical environment of the Cretan music tradition. His drum lessons with Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis led him to pursue music studies in the Jazz Department of the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in 2015. There he studied with Eric Ineke, Stefan Kruger, Felix Schlarmann, and Hans Zonderop.

In the Netherlands, he spent his most active years as a drummer, performing in local clubs and festivals such as Murphy’s Law, Diligentia Theater, Pavlov Bat, Leiden Jazz Festival, Jazz in de Gracht, Korzo Theater, Cafe Tilt, TivoliVredenburg, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, and others. As a sideman he performed, among others, with Kasper Christensen, Camille Prenant, Olivier van Niekerk, John Marshall, Dan Nicholas, Timothy Banchet, Federica Lorusso, Jose Cervera, Alessio Calore, Raphael Royer, Enrico Le Noci, Georgios Tsolis, Nikos Kalogiannis, and others. As a leader he performed with his Standards Quartet, his quintet Anamnisi, and the octet “De Haagse Swingers,” mainly for the Lindy Hop dance community of The Hague.

Among other recordings, he participated in the albums The Netherlands Diary by saxophonist Dong-gi Kim, New Home by bassist SangGeun Lee, and Déjà Vu by pianist Eunjin Bae. In 2021 Dimitris returned to Greece and began teaching percussion at music schools around the country, while also performing with Giorgos Koutsikoulis, Antonis Arvanitis, Stergios Polyzos, Grigoris Theodoridis, the swing band Jeepers Creepers, and occasionally with Gilad Atzmon and Giorgos Kontrafouris. Over the past two years, tap dancing has become a major source of inspiration and expression for Dimitris, who is trying to integrate it into his artistic activity.