Greece -The Northwest

Next we are heading west again to the town of Aridaia in Central Macedonia, where half of the woodwind duo Kolida Babo comes from.  Sokrates Votskos and Harris P both play the Armenian duduk as well as numerous other instruments including clarinet, saxophone and electronics.  They combine the traditions of Armenia and Thrace with modern electronica and free jazz to produce a highly improvised style.  Here is a live performance of them, for more check out their 2019 self-titled debut album:

Singer/songwriter Alkyone was born and raised in Edessa in the mountains of Central Macedonia.  She explores indie songwriting with cinematic textures and folk influences, shaped by growing up in nature and her father's love of folk music.  She doesn't appear to have released any full albums yet, but here is a recent single of hers called Desert Song: 

Composer, singer and saxophonist Giorgos Katsaros was born in 1934 on the island of Corfu.  He is mostly known for Rebetika compositions for films, but also collaborated with the likes of Nana Mouskouri and Yannis Theodoridis.  Here is a song featuring on the 2004 Rough Guide Rebetika compilation called Mes' Tou Manthou Ton Teke:

Finally we stop in the village of Delvinaki, close to the Albanian border.  This is where clarinettist Petroloukas Chalkias was born in 1934.  He died just last year.  He was a traditional musician upholding the music from Greece's northwest, but was not afraid to mix it up with international collaborations with musicians from India (Rakesh Chaurasia and Rabindra Goswami) as well as the Cretan lyra of Ross Daly and Malian Kora player Ballaké Sissoko.  His last recording was in 2023 with young Epiro Lauto player Vassilis Kostas, a 2-part album called The Soul Of Epirus.  Here is a live version of the album:

That is finally it from Greece, which dragged on a bit due to some health issues I had over the past year.  Next we'll head into Albania.  In the meantime, as usual, you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map