WOMAD

Eleftheria Arvanitaki

From Greece

Rembétika is the folk music of urban Greece. The style takes its musical tone from the eastern Mediterranean, and its lyrics centre around the lives of the poor and of the shadier sectors of society – much like the blues. It took root in the early twenties, when the collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to huge numbers of Turkish Christian refugees arriving in Greece, bringing their music with them and settling in cities such as Athens and Piraeus. Eleftheria Arvanitaki was born in Piraeus, and over the past decade has become Greece’s leading interpreter of folk songs, including rembétika. In the early eighties, Eleftheria sang with the Opisthodromoki Kompania, a group of amateur musicians and students dedicated to keeping rembétika alive (the style has fallen in and out of favour over the decades). After two albums with the group, she began working with Nikos Mamagakis, exploring the styles of néo kimá, the new wave of Greek folk which was strongly associated with the political Left. She also cut an album with Dhionisios Savvopoulos, a bouzouki player who had been a leading light of néo kimá in the sixties. In 1986 and 1987, Eleftheria recorded two albums which are now seen as milestones in modern Greek music. ‘Kontrabado’, made with the composer Stamatis Spanoudakis, showed Eleftheria’s rich and warm vocals at their best: ‘Konda Sti Doxa Gia Mi Stigmi’ was recorded with Nikos Ksidhakis and Ross Daly, an Irishman who settled in Crete and is a virtuoso of the Cretan spiked fiddle. This album, with its mix of Gypsy tunes, urban folk and mysterious lyrics, is the one that really made her name.In the nineties, Eleftheria has become a Greek superstar, singing to huge crowds, touring abroad and releasing a series of strong albums – she even recorded the first CD single to go platinum in Greece.