On An Overgrown Path

A diverting but relevant codicil to my ' No such thing as an acoustically perfect concert hall ' post is provided by the recently released acoustic double CD Skiathos from the sometime Greek rock guitarist Adonis Mitzelos . For those who, quite appropriately, are reading this post on a mobile phone I will explain that the inlay card text above reads: Recordings were made on a mobile phone in the spring of 2013 and 2014 and on a small portable digital recorder in the summer of 2015, on the balcony, inside and outside Adonis Mitzelos' family house, in Skiathos. This album of what Adonis Mitzelos terms Aegean jazz was recommended when visiting Crete last year and confirms the rule of serendipity that chance music purchases are often the best music purchases . It was recorded to quote Adonis Mitzelos' sleeve note "without a second thought, without an eraser... infused with island sound... the church bells and birds" - audio sample here . His guitar improvisatio...

My photographs show the Monastery of St. John the Theologian at Preveli which I visited on my recent travels on the south coast of Crete. As explained in an earlier post, on this trip noise cancelling headphones provided me with a concert hall without walls . On my playlist was Vangelis' Rapsodies , an album I chanced upon during recent explorations of arcane electronica . Rapsodies is loosely based on Greek Orthodox liturgical chant and was the second album Vangelis cut with Irene Papas providing vocals. Better known as an actress, Irene Papas' credits include The Guns of Navarone, Michael Cacoyannis' Zorba the Greek and Costa-Gavras' legendary Z . One of her final screen appearances was in 2001 in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Rapsodies was released in Greece four years after it was recorded in 1982 and had to wait until 2007 for a pan-European release. Polydor's hesitancy in marketing the album reflected a justified nervousness about its merit. ...

That 1971 CBS LP is a classic of the gramophone. It includes Mikis Theodorakis' setting of Brendan Behan's verse used in Constantin Costa Gravas' legendary film Z , which protested against the despotic regime of the military junta that held power when the album was recorded. Mikis Theodorakis was imprisoned by the Greek military dictatorship for his activism. Maria Farantouri (which is the usual transliteration of the Greek, rather than Farandouri as on the record sleeve) went into exile when Theodorakis' music was banned after the 1967 military coup. Because of her political engagement Maria Farantouri was known as 'the Greek Joan Baez', and by performing Theodorakis' songs around the world she nurtured international resistance to the military dictatorship in Greece . This is just one of many example of how protest music contributed to political change. Today the need for political change is as urgent as ever; however the protest singers have fallen...

My belated contribution to International Women's Day is this priceless photo by Manolis Mathioudakis of contemporary modal music exponent Kelly Thoma . Not only is Kelly a remarkable musician, she is also a remarkable international woman who mixes playing Carnegie Hall with giving benefits for the street dogs of Heraklion on Crete where she lives. Hearing Kelly play an open air gig with her partner in life and music Ross Daly in a village among the foothills of Crete's White Mountains confirmed the assertion by another great woman Julian of Norwich that “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” Kelly has a wide-ranging discography of solo and ensemble performances; while of particular relevance to International Women's Day is her work with the all-female international folk string quartet Tokso - see video below. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at...

Cyprus together with Greece has suffered from the one-size-fits-all doctrinaire economic policies of the Troika - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But, as with the Greek island of Crete , creativity flourishes on Cyprus despite recent EU-imposed economic stringency. Cyprus is not noted for its music; in fact my ageing edition of the Rough Guide to World Music covering the Mediterranean makes no mention of Cyprus at all. Which gives totally the wrong impression as there is some exciting agitative new music coming from the island. One example is Monsieur Doumani, an acoustic trio of tzouras - a relative of the bouzouki - guitar and trombone/flute from Nicosia. This latter-day Incredible String Band mixes their traditional Cypriot roots with acerbic social commentary and a style that defies the one-size-fits-all mindset of the corporate music industry. Below is a track from Monsieur Doumani's 2013 debut album Grippy Grappa...

Remembered Music : Abdulmalik Dyck, Alki Keeler, Daud Khan, Sheikh Hassan Dyck In the Light of Air by Anna Thorvaldsdottir: International Contemporary Ensemble Ravi Shankar: The Living Room Sessions : Ravi Shankar, Tannoy Bose, Kenji Ota, Barry Philips The Beauty of Disaster : J. Peter Schwalm If Man But Knew : The Habibiyya Jonathan Harvey String Quartets and String Trio : Arditti Quartet Synaygia : Ross Daly, Rufus Cappadocia, Girogos Symeonidis, Chemirani Trio Edmund Rubbra Symphonies 6 & 8 : Norman del Mar, Philharmonia Orchestra Songs and Guitar Pieces by Theodorakis : Maria Farandouri and John Williams Jetsun Mila : Eliane Radique That is just some of the music I listened to recently on my iPod when visiting the remote Greek island of Gavdos . By choice during three weeks of travelling I did not have access to email, Facebook, Twitter or other online services. That experience reinforced my concerns about our 'always connected' existence and prompted my re...

Georg, who is the the proprietor of the idiosyncratic Pocoloco Hotel in Chania, is also an alpine guide. Crete was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Second World War and on his treks in the island's back country Georg has found these old army boots which now decorate his hotel. The first one seen below is a Greek army boot. This, like many modern Greek governments, was a compromised concept that did not stand the test of time. Next is a British army boot; nothing fancy but it clearly did its job. Finally, below is a German army boot which displays notably superior technology in its construction compared with the Greek and British footwear. So the moral of this little story is that the best technology does not always win . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

One of the highlights of the 2017 BBC Proms was the the Oslo Philharmonic under its chief conductor Vasily Petrenko performing Shostakovich's Twelfth Symphony . In the Guardian Andrew Clements described the Norwegian orchestra as a "thrilling ensemble"and awarded the performance four stars. The Oslo Philharmonic is a venerable and respected orchestra which tours in EU countries and as far afield as Hong Kong and Taiwan, and in the 2019-2020 season it undertakes a centenary world tour to major European capitals, Asia and South America. Another more questionable highlight of the 2017 BBC Proms season was the high profile expressions of pro-European unity and anti-Brexit sentiments from the platform. But conveniently overlooked by everyone was the Oslo Philharmonic's domicile in a European country that is not a member of the EU; a domicile shared with the Bergen Philharmonic which has recently been acclaimed for its recordings of Vaughan Williams' Ninth Symp...

And if you can’t shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade it by too much contact with the world, by too much activity and talk. Try not to degrade it by dragging it along, taking it around and exposing it so often to the daily silliness of social events and parties, until it comes to seem a boring hanger-on. Poem is As Much As You Can by C.P.Cavafy (1863-1933) who is seen in my header photo. In 1927 Dimitri Mitropoulos' 10 inventions based on poems by Cavafy was premiered at the Athens Conservatoire. Photo is via Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard of the poem is from the website of the Cavafy Archives . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Still there are moments when one feels free from one’s own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being ~ Albert Einstein in letter to the Queen of Belgium 1939 The eternal unfathomable beauty of that sunset over the Libyan Sea was photographed on my recent travels to the margins of Europe. The Greek island of Gavdos is the southernmost point in Europe and my parallel journey to Europe's musical margins led me to the work of Paul Goodman . A pupil of Ross Daly, alumnus of Ross' Labyrinth music cooperative and an exponent of contemporary modal music on the the Cretan lyra and its cousin the Turkish saz, Paul Goodman has released the CD Strangely Familiar on his own label - audition via this link . No review...

Whatever begins with the criterion, and basic motive of material gain, without having any real feeling, can never be successful, it will never realize its full potential. Music is not made to order, it isn’t just executed, whenever you try and contain it within specific boundaries, to limit it, to play just to make a living, for example, it will never achieve its potential grandeur. That quote is from the great Cretan lyra player and teacher Kostas Mountakis (1926-91). Among his pupils was the leading exponent of modern Cretan modal music Ross Daly . In Greece today the government's attempt to exit from the EU imposed bailout programme has created a big opportunity for the masters of the financial universe which is causing widespread resentment. This Reuters report explains what is happening: "Big money managers have started buying cheap Greek stocks from banks to lotteries as clouds over talks between Athens and its international creditors gradually clear, anticipating big...

Both the anti and pro-Brexiteers are doing a splendid job of confirming Jiddu Krishnamurti's thesis that leaders destroy the following and followers destroy the leaders. Just one example comes from the Creative Industries Federation - one of several music-related anti-Brexit pressure groups - which has published seven principles for Brexit . These include the objective that the UK should continue to influence the shape of the EU's Digital Single Market , but completely fail to mention safeguarding the future of physical product and non-digital distribution. As is proven by numerous examples such as the one above , the move towards a single digital market is a major factor in the destruction of the recorded music market. One of the consequences of this has been the forced closure of virtually every independent bricks and mortar record retailer . Despite mouthing platitudes about 'maintaining a robust and properly enforced intellectual property (IP) regime' the mus...

My  recent advocacy of Welsh composers prompted an email from Richard Bratby in which he observed that "I've always... sensed that music as an art, in all its forms, is somehow much closer to the surface of daily life in Wales". Richard is right, as I realised many years ago when I spent time at an EMI production facility in Treorchy , a Welsh town world-famous for its male voice choir . And much more recently I experienced the same integration of music into the quotidian in Crete: when this taxi driver from Sitia heard that we had been with Ross Daly he whipped out his lyra for a spontaneous photo opportunity. This love of music is just one facet of the crazy wisdom that Nikos Kazantazakis captured so accurately in his Zorba character. Crazy wisdom is counter-intuitive smartness, and Cretans have that in abundance. Conventional wisdom tells us that independent music stores cannot survive. But in Crete, despite Greece's perpetual financial crisis , there were...

My  wife took these photos during our recent visit to Crete. Like many countries Greece has a large feral cat population. In the grounds of our rented apartment in Sitia a feral cat had given birth to a litter of six beautiful kittens. The mother had found a safe cavity in a rocky bank for her litter, and she fed and cared for them with total dedication. I confess to being a cat person , but I am also aware that photos of kittens have become a benign form of click bait . These two photos are undoubtedly visually arresting, but there is another reason for posting them. My visit to Crete was a rich experience. I hiked in remote eastern Crete , had the inspiring company of Kelly Thoma and Ross Daly , swam in the warm and crystal clear Libyan sea, and heard uplifting music . All of those memories will stay with me, but so will the memory of that mother cat and her offspring. It is not just classical music that is obsessed with the next big thing , the whole of society has the same ob...

That rock formation was photographed by me in the Zakros Gorge in the remote east of Crete where I am currently staying. The gorge is known as the Valley of the Dead because of the Minoan cave burials that have been discovered there. After hiking through the gorge yesterday I read John McLaughlin Williams' astute observation on Facebook that Arnold Bax's Fifth Symphony is “elemental in effect.... this is one of the great symphonies of the 20th century”. Bax's Fifth is clearly influenced by Shostakovich without being derivative, just as the symphonies of Malcolm Arnold – the tenth anniversary of whose death has just passed - are influenced by both Mahler and Shostakovich . Contemporary audiences appear to have an insatiable appetite for both Shostakovich and Mahler ; yet the cartel of celebrity musicians, agents and concert promoters that controls classical music does not give audiences the opportunity to hear Bax and Arnold. If classical music really wants to expand ...

An earlier post gave a heads up to Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma 's benefit for street dogs, and now here is the poster for the concert. For those in barking distance of Heraklion who don't read Greek, the concert is on October 4th at 21.00h in the Manos Hatzidakis Theatre and admission is just 5 euros. Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Nicholas Kenyon in the Guardian declares God save The Last Night of the Proms post-Brexit and the Telegraph reports that Anti-Brexit campaigners to hijack Last Night of the Proms with EU flags . When will classical music finally realise that until it stops taking the Last Night of the Proms seriously, classical music will not be taken seriously? A usual I am steering well clear of that annual gathering of the twittering crowd, and instead am off to Crete off to sample some contemporary modal music . A post last year described how exciting and overlooked music was evolving in Crete under the visionary leadership of Ross Daly . Recent listening that has set my pulse racing has included two outstanding new CDs from Ross' pupils. On Thrace lyra prodigy Sokratis Sinopoulos teams up with virtuoso percussionists Bijan and Keyvan Chemirani , and - strange but true - Ensemble Intercontemporain cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras . The programme includes Lutoslawki 's Sacher Variation,...

Quite soon I will be back in Crete . When I arrive there with my wife we go straight to Houdetsi to catch the last concert in Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma's Labyrinth Summer Workshop series. Then we travel to Agios Nikolaos to hook up with Panos from the Greek Music Shop who supplies me with CDs faster and cheaper than Amazon's UK operation. My most recent purchase from Panos is Osi Hara ‘houn Ta Poulia (Όση Χαρά ‘χουν Τα Πουλιά) on which Εvgenia Damavoliti-Toli sings Ross Daly's settings of Cretan contemporary poets and the great 16th century Cretan bard Vitsentzos Kornaros . A post here last year about the contemporary modal music movement led by Ross Daly lamented how Cretan music has been stereotyped. In the post I went on to explain how a rich mix ranging from Greek Orthodox Christianity to Zen Buddhism and Bektashi Sufism informs Cretan culture, and that compelling universalism pervades this outstanding new release. No comps involved in this post. Any cop...

Contemporary Greece is carrying some serious baggage. It has gained notoriety as the entry point into Europe for refugees fleeing sectarian conflict in the Middle East, its economy is portrayed as a hopeless basket cas e and its music is seen to be forever locked in Zorba's groove . This negative image is very unfair, and it is doubly unfair because there are some very exciting and original things happening in Greece, particularly on the island of Crete. One of those exciting things is the feisty young lyra player Kelly Thoma, who is seen above with her hopefully airline approved cabin baggage. Equidistant from mainland Europe, Africa, and Asia, Crete historically has formed a bridge between the cultures of those three continents. As the Emirate of Crete it was ruled by Iberian Muslims for a century (c820-961CE), and was then part of the Christian world for seven centuries (961-1669CE), first under the Catholic Venetians and then as part of Orthodox Byzantium. Crete returned ...