A Lament for Epirus 1926-1928

This compilation was first issued as a limited edition Record Store Day vinyl release, which promptly sold out. Now, it returns, a bonus 7” tucked inside, along with extensive notes by driven researcher and compiler Christopher King. Previously unpublished photographs are included, and it boasts a portrait cover by underground comix artist, musician and obsessive 78rpm-hoarder, Robert Crumb. Ten sides from the mid-1920s are gathered together, glorying in the exceptional violin performances of Greek traditional player Alexis Zoumbas, who moved from Epirus to NYC in 1910. Beyond the inescapable surface noise, this music sounds bright and sharp, the fiddler's highly ornamented, fluid expression spiralling above a slowly evolving bass drone foundation, Zoumbas eliciting laughing and weeping characters via his feet bowing.

The bittersweet mood takes a more mournful turn by the third track of this collection, ‘Tsamiko Makedonias’. The accompanying cimbalom (which sounds like a highly reverberant upright pub piano) provides a relentless walking foundation, as the more-or-less straight tune moves through its various mini-movements. On ‘Klefes’, the cimbalom has a more rooted tread, diligently progressing while Zoumbas is free to fly of with his elaborations. ‘Alimbes’ reveals some particularly fine detail in its tune, the line repeatedly lifting just one notch higher, with yet one more, finer flourish. Ten, Zoumbas climaxes by hitting his highest birdsong notes during the closing ‘Tzamara Arvanitiko’.