Publication on the release of the album Chants des Akrites
‘Greek traditional music still holds many surprises’; that is how the French musical periodical Le Monde de la musique (The world of music) presents the release by Harmonia Mundi of a record of Akritc1 songs from the 8th to the 13th century.
These Byzantine songs are rendered by a group of musicians led by Domna Samiou, about whom the periodical writes: ‘at a time when most groups are turning traditional music into a sterile show, Domna Samiou chose to work with non professional musicians from the areas where the songs originate.’
The result is a record that verifies the vitality and multifaceted character of traditional Greek music. Instead of a dry aestheticism, there is deep emotion, especially in the voice of Domna Samiou –who harks from the Akritan lands of Asia Minor– and of Stavros Gryllakis in the simple yet compact warrior songs of Crete.
1Akrites: marches, landed soldiers who undertook to protect the remote fringes of the Byzantine empire
Newspaper , Ta Nea , 25 June 1982
Translated by Alexander Seferiades
