Four years ago, with the Greekadelia album, Kristi Stassinopoulou and Stathis Kalyviotis shook up their country’s folk scene by matching the traditional lauto lute against electronica and samples. Now they apply the same technique to their own songs, written in response to their country’s continuing economic crisis.
There are echoes of 1960s psychedelia in the drifting, hazy opening track, featuring mellotron and harmonium, while elsewhere Kristi’s cool, laidback vocals are set against electronic riffs or samples of Indonesian gamelan. The lyrics – with translations thankfully provided – are more personal than directly political; stories of survival and living for the present. In Winter Is Coming, she advises “Let’s lock the door and hide away – everything out there is getting hostile”, while the spoken Take Me Wind contrasts the beauty of the Aegean sea with the dangers faced by refugees trying to cross it.
A thoughtful, gently powerful set.
