Greece - Athens Part II

 Continuing our exploration of the music of Athens, we encounter the duo of Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis.  They have taken the ancient traditional music form of Demotika and added a modern twist coming up with what they call Greekadalia. Kristi sings and plays an Indian Harmonium or a frame drum, whilst Stathis accompanies her with Greek lauto, live looping and electronics, which makes for an hypnotic effect.  Here is a song from their 2012 album Greekadalia called Neratzoula Fountomeini:

Singer and composer Marina Satti was born in Athens in 1986 to Cretan and Sudanese heritage.  She started playing the piano aged 5 and later went on to study classical singing and eventually jazz composition at Berklee University in the USA.  She has written music for films and has done voice overs for animated movies.  After several successful singles, she released her debut album Yenna in 2022.  Last year she represented Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest.  Her style is a blend of various cultural influences as well as pop and electronica.  Here's a song from her above mentioned album called Pali:

Jazz-folk fusion band Mode Plagal were formed in Athens in 1990.  They combine funky upbeat saxophone-lead jazz with traditional Greek folk inflections.  Here is a track from their 1998 album Mode Plagal II called Pikrodafni:

Singer Katerina Papadopoulou is considered one of the very few in Greece who still continue the art of the old masters of traditional singing.  She founded the Anastatica Project to highlight the ancient traditions of Greece and has recorded an album with them in 2021 entitled Anástasis - a journey through old Greek music.  Here's a flavour of their music.  Turn on the subtitles for English translations.

That's it from Athens for today, next we will be exploring more music from the Greek mainland.  In the meantime, as usual you can follow my virtual route on my Tripline map.