Greece - Peloponnese & Thessaly

 Leaving Athens we enter the Peloponnese peninsula.  Although Folk quartet Matzounia were founded in Athens, their members hail from various parts of mainland Greece, including Kyparissia on the Peleponnese.  They specialise in traditional dance tunes from Epirus, but also include songs from Macedonia and Albania playing clarinet, lute and other traditional instruments accompanied by their voices.  Here is a song from their 2021 album Στο πηγάδι του Αγγλία (in the English Well) called Σκοπός αμαν γιαρει.  The album is available on Bandcamp for a pay as you feel like it basis:

Composer and violinist Evanthia Reboutsika was born in 1958 in Kato Achaia on the north side of the Peloponnese near Patras.  She is mostly known for her instrumental arrangements and also for scoring for TV series and films.  The latter is probably due to her father having owned a cinema in her home town.  She learned the violin aged 6 and later toured with her siblings as a string quartet.  Her albums became best-sellers in Greece.  Here's a live version of her tune An Umbrella Over Vosporos from her 2003 album A Touch of Spice:

Next we are heading onto the mainland to Elassona in the province of Thessaly, where singer/songwriter Thanasis Papakonstantinou was born in 1959.  He likes to combine his traditional rembetiko with electronic and experimental notes, even veering into rock.  Here is a song called Pehlivanis, originally from his 2000 album Βραχνός Προφήτης, Vrachnos Profitis, which was reissued in 2015.

I'll leave it at that today.  Apologies for the long silence between posts, I had some health issues in the last few months.  Next time we'll look at some of the music from Thessaloniki.  In the meantime you can check my virtual wanderings on my tripline map.