Back to the Taverna

Cherry Bandora are a band from Berlin that revel in their cultural roots at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Led by Lorena Atrakci on vocals and Liad Vanounou (bouzouki), their music takes its cue from the hard-driving Greek bouzouki laïko of the 1950s – think of musicians such as Vassilis Tsitsanis – reinventing and rehabilitating its unashamed drive and energy in the same way that the seminal album I Ekdikisi Tis Gyftias by Nikos Xydakis, Manolis Rasoulis & Nikos Papazoglou did back in the 1970s. However, Cherry Bandora take laïko and infuse it with Turkish rock, Balkan swing and Persian disco funk. Such a mixture has to be fun, and it is. This was their album to celebrate returning to live performance after various lockdowns, and the recording kicks off with a live rendition of ‘The Sound of Baglama’, a great homage to Tsitsanis. The tempo doesn’t let up with ‘Mia Dekara’ and the brilliantly kitschy ‘Aman Kuzum’. The Turkish ‘Rampi Rampi (feat Barış Öner)’ has some excellent bouzouki playing. And once you have been through the (literal) plate smashing of ‘Dimitroula Mou’ and more driving, swinging bouzouki to follow, the only moment of relative repose, ‘Esý’, is even more effective. Best of all, it’s an album you will listen to with a huge grin.