Maria Farantouri – Beyond The Borders (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:08 minutes | 918 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
The album title is the programme in this meeting of remarkable artists brought together to arrange and interpret traditional music of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Armenia, and to play original songs by Anatolian saz player Cihan Türkoğlu and lyricist Agathi Dimitroukas. In the spirit of the project, the new songs also bridge cultures and idioms. Legendary Greek singer Maria Farantouri, once famously hailed as “the Callas of the people”, excels in this music beyond the borders, having worked with a vast range of artists – from Mikis Theodorakis to Charles Lloyd, from Leo Brouwer to Mercedes Sosa. German cellist Anja Lechner, a classical musician primarily, in this context draws on a knowledge of folk forms gained partly through interpreting the works of Armenian-Greek philosopher-composer Gurdjieff. Armenian-born, French-based kanon (zither) player Meri Vardanyan has previously appeared on ECM as a member of the Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble. Ney player and ethnomusicologist Christos Barbas, from Thessaloniki, has played everything from music of the baroque to ragas. Percussionist İzzet Kızıl grew up in Eastern Turkey in an environment dominated by Sufi rhythms and has worked in many transcultural ventures with artists from Natacha Atlas to Theodossi Spazzov, along the way evolving new approaches to percussion. In brief, each of the musicians here has a history both of working sensitively within traditions and, no less respectfully, extending those traditions through collaboration.
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