Customer Reviews

Greek Legacy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sohpia Bilides sings from the heart, especially when she is singing songs from her Greek roots. Her deep, rich voice can cry out "aman" in anguish or coax a baby to sleep with a lullaby. This is a first rate album and should be in the collection of anyone interested in Greek music.

This is my favorite of the 50 or so Greek recordings in my collection. Like a fine poem, the more you return to it the more you get out of it. The singing and multi-instrumented accompaniment is at the highest level of musical accomplishment, and the audo quality is exquisite. If my house were burning down I'd save this one first!

Sophia Bilides provides a fine look into rebetika. Her ornamentation and rich voice combine to take the listener to another time and place. Her fine technique makes it seem effortless, but her singing represents years of commitment to and knowledge of the genre. Perhaps it is her own Greek heritage that informs the singing so well. Whatever it is, yasou, Sophia!

This is a great recording of traditional music displaying a variety of Greek genres. The instrumentation is also folk, though personalized to this particular orchestration. Sophia's singing is rich and emotive, with her unique vocal style breathing fresh life into some of the classic songs. Great folk artists do not merely imitate old masters, they infuse new energy while retaining the traditional values. This is a challenging line to walk, and the group in this recording succeeds wonderfully.

The scope of Greek music in this recording spans from the mountains of central Greece through the islands and to Asia Minor. The instrumentalists add lush and virtuoso arrangements, and Sophia's rich, ornamented contralto voice is the central gem set in this Hellenic jewelry. The dance rhythms are driving, and Sophia's vocal mastery of the music is most evident in the more sparsely accompanied (and a capella) songs. Her deceptive smoothness in the rebetika tunes belie their complexity and allow us to simply enjoy the results.

This CD is a modern artistic interpretation of beloved Greek music, while it also preserves an amazing level of detail from the vocal and instrumental stylistic heritage. It deserves its place among the best of such recordings--as well as in your dance music playlists!

The music is EXTREMELY stale. The musicians are playing from script and the music sounds that way. Sophia Bilides is an excellent musician but her music lacks the depth of the original recordings that have since become available that she claims to have listened to (if she has then her interpretations are even worse that reviewed here.) She over-dramatizes the music horribly and it comes across as if she is trying to glamorize music that just isn't glamorous.

In addition, the santouri was a main instrument only on RARE occaisions. She makes this out that the santouri was the end all of music in that day and it simply wasn't - it was a rhythm instrument. There is no real knowledge of rembetika here whatsoever, just someone who is trying to make a buck on poor unsuspecting people who know no better. Anyone having any remote knowledge of the music can see this in her horrible interpretations and incorrect liner notes. STAY AWAY FROM THIS.