Esperanto

Dimitris Mystakidis’ avowed mission is to restore acoustic folk guitar to its rightful place in Greek popular music, long dominated by bouzouki. Lead solo guitar occurs on many 1920s recordings – Yiorgos Katsaros being the acknowledged master. Mystakidis got off to a flying start in 2006 with 16 Rebetika Tragoudhia Paigmena me Kithara (16 Rebetika Songs Played on Guitar), mostly 1930s compositions.

Now he's back with 16 more popular songs (including one from Crete) from 1939 to 1962, all rearranged for guitar. To interpret the lyrics, he recruited nine singing stars active since the 70s, plus a few newcomers, while contributing backing vocals himself. They all (with one exception) rise splendidly to the occasion, every so often transcending bathetic stanzas through heartfelt delivery. An entire CD covering post-war hits and lesser-known numbers straddling the rickety fence between hardcore rebetika and laïka (its more accessible outgrowth) – who’da thunk it would work so well? Mystakidis’ intimate sound is so full that you can’t believe there's just one guitar there.