Spirits of Mauronoros

The ancient world and the turbulent present collide to great effect on this, the second LP from the Greek woodwind duo of Socratis Votskos and Harris P. ‘Mauronoros’ refers to one of the many Greek villages abandoned due to economic traumas. Situated in northern Epirus, Greece, its ghosts and residual cultural echoes are the inspiration for this sometimes challenging record, a sonic world of drones, evocative melodies, free jazz and mutated electronics. Intense and richly layered, various saxophones, clarinets, duduk and kaval flutes join in a complex ritual with vintage synthesisers, a heightened historical drama that is both meditative and conflicted. The Thracian gaida (a local bagpipe) that appears on ‘Pangea’s Journey’ adds an otherworldly texture to the 70s style atmospherics, the lovely ‘Hymn’ could be Yusef Lateef in collusion with Tangerine Dream. Potent, gritty and explorative, the ‘spirits’ have been invoked.