Songs of Thessaloniki

Since the 1990s, Greek soprano Savina Yannatou has established herself as an experimental interpreter of pan-Mediterranean folk songs. Primavera en Salonico have been together since 1993, featuring arranger Kostas Vomvolos on qanun (zither) and accordion, Kyriakos Gouvendas on fiddle and Haris Lambrakis on ney. Yannatou had her breakthrough album of Sephardic songs, Springtime in Salonica, with this band in 1994, and has remained linked to them. This musical valentine to Thessaloníki's multi-ethnic past, embracing Sephardic/Ladino, Greek, Pontian, Turkish, Slavic and Armenian lyrics and melodies, includes a hymn to the city's patron saint, Dimitrios; a satirical Irish World War I song; plus music from the pre-1913 Slavophone community – a touchy subject in Greece – on three tracks.

But Yannatou still seems most at home with the Sephardic material. The vocal vibrato that sometimes marred Yannatou's earlier recordings is held in check here, and Primavera's playing provides a usually well-balanced foundation to her supple vocals, if slightly overwhelmed by double bass and percussion. Liner notes celebrate Thessaloniki's urban past, but shed little light on the songs.