Beyond the Borders

This project brings together the Greek singer Maria Farantouri and Anatolian saz player and composer Cihan Türkoğlu, who arranged all the tracks and contributed four songs. They also have an excellent cast of musicians, including Meri Vardanyan on kanun and Christos Barbas on ney, and together they interpret the traditional music of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Armenia.

The delicate kanun accompaniment on ‘Triantafylia’ is beautifully done and, in general, the arrangements of the traditional songs are sensitively handled. What is impressive is that the new songs composed by Türkoğlu – such as ‘Dyo Kosmoi Mia Angalia’ – stand up well alongside the ones from traditional sources. When he does step out a bit more there is a minimalist feel, especially on ‘Ta Panda Rei’. The music veers towards the contemplative, which suits Farantouri's voice, but this does tend to make the disc feel the same throughout and an extra buzz of excitement would have been welcome.