Lamenta

Even without any knowledge of the Greek language whatsoever, it’s not hard to guess the central theme of this album from Greek composer, lyricist and singer Xanthoula Dakovanou. Featuring Magic Malik, a French jazz flutist from the Ivory Coast, Lamenta was originally created to accompany a dance performance of the same name. Taking the miroloi traditions of the Epirus mountains – dealing with mankind’s varying approach to grief, loss and longing – it fuses them with traditional Greek music, post-rock and jazz.

Somewhat unforgiving and unrelenting in its despair and gloom, this collection of 11 songs is probably better listened to with the visual accompaniment of the choreographed performance for which it was designed, rather than as a standalone work of pure audio. While sad songs sometimes really do say so much, sometimes you wish they’d just stop and get over it. It’s hard to find much pleasure or reward, other than in the satisfaction of enduring such piteous expressions of human misery and suffering, from this nonetheless artistically and technically accomplished work. Possibly one for dedicated scholars of the most obscure aspects of traditional Greek music only… or masochists.