Akritan1 songs in the harmony of the world: 'Greek traditional music still holds many surprises'; that is how the French musical periodical The world of music presents the release by Harmonia Mundi of a record of Akritan 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.
Translated by Alexander Seferiades
