From: miscord@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Michael Scordilis)
Subject: Kritiki gia to "Melisma" tis Apodimis Companias
Keywords: Music, Greek Australian, folk, traditional
Organization: Electrical and Electronic - University of Melbourne 
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 06:29:06 GMT


To paron minima den einai diafimistiki reklama, alla kathari enimerwsi.

Einai mia kritiki apo to periodiko "24 Hours. ABC-FM Stereo.Radio National.
ABC Concerts"  February 1993", to periodiko tou Australianou kratikou 
organismou radiofwnou-TV.  H kritiki auti afora ton CD tis Apodimis Kompanias
enos sobarou sygkrotimatos paradosiakis kai entexnis  mousikis pou, 
douleuei edw sti Melbourni.  Apoteleitai apo 4 neous sovarous  kallitexnes tis
Ellinikis paroikias twn antipodwn, pou exoun teleiwsei topika Panepistimia.
Eimaste tyxeroi edw pou mporoume kai tous akoume/blepoume taktika kai pou 
symballoun stin psyxiki mas trofi.  To kalyma tou CD filotexnithike apo
ton topiko zwgrafo Niko Soulaki kai apeikonizei se Byzantino rythmo dyo 
mousikous enxordwn: ton ena byzantino kai ton allo Roumeliwti'. Sxolia gia
tin Apodimi Compania kanei o Stathis Gauntlett, Yfigitis Newn Ellinikwn sto 
Panepistimio Melbournis.  Autos o CD einai symantikos stathmos sti mousiki 
kai politistiki paradosi kai stin istoria tis Ellinikis parousias stin
Australia, mias dynamikis parousias pou arxizei apo to 1823 me ton ektopismo
Ellinwn irwwn tou Nautikou Apeleutherwtikou Agwna kata tou Othomanou 
kataktiki apo Aggliko stratodikio tis Maltas. Apo emfanisi kai mousiki 
poiotita autos o CD den exei tipote na zilepsei apo ekdoseis Elladitwn 
kalitexwn kai mallon einai i monadiki simantiki parousia sto eidos tou. 
Me ton titlo "Melisma" einai pragmati "mousiko stolidi".  
========

Copied without permission from "24 Hours", Feb 1993, pg. 20.
 
APODIMI COMPANIA
MELISMA
(74 minutes)
Brunswick Recording BRCD 17
(also on cassette)
(Available through Melbourne's better record shops or Brunswick Recordings,
10 Dawson St., Brunswick VIC 3056. Ph: (03) 3873376, Fax: (03) 3808234).

Many Australian's notion of Greek music have been 'informed' by Nana
Mouskouri smiling relentlessly from their televisions, juke-boxes at late-
night foodstops, cabaret bands relentlessly outsmiling even Nana as they
churned out their ten-thousandth, blandest-yet Zorba's Dance, and even 
perhaps by the Monty Python cheese shop.  So, to many of us, the music on 
this disc will be a great shock, albeit of the most enjoyable kind.  
Elements conspicuously lacking in the aforementioned - most especially, 
imagination and real passion - are here abundandly present.  So too, is a 
much wider and more interesting array of instruments and instrumental 
textures than most Australians (doubtless even many ancestrally Greek 
Australians) would have imagined.  One needs no special interest in or
knowledge of Greek music to enjoy the unmistakable sound of musicians who 
are really 'together'.  That it so happens they're Australian is very 
pleasing, but Apodimi Compania needs no special pleading; I've seen these 
musicians live in very different environments, and am sure they could take
the stage at any international roots/folk/world musical festival and likely
prove a highlight.  

Their first CD is their third album, and whilst they're capable of an even
better one, Melisma would be among my top five Australian albums of whatever
gerne.  It's also beautifully packaged and thoughtfully annotated; there's
nothing about this CD which says 'small label' in any pejorative sense. 
Musically, it has two sides, and those who buy the cassette version will 
probably find they prefer either side A or side B.  The first is devoted 
mostly to Demotika (rural folk music) and the second to the urban Rebetika.
If you're familiarwith the cliches uttered about the latter form - 'Greek 
blues' is one tag - you may expect to find the harder edged, more emotionally
complex and fiery music-making on the Rebetika side and the more simple and
polite noises on teh Demotika selections.  Exactly the reverse is the case.
The Rebetika selections are very competently performed, but it's in Demotika
that Apodimi Compania is more adventurous and the music more inspired.  Far
from sounding remotely like a trip to a museum, this is playing and singing
within living traditions - one should really speak of various Greek musics).
Apodimi Compania ranges across regions, and the Demotika selections include
two fine new tunes from within the band and another medley written especially
for them by their Irish friend Andy Irvine.

If you like Arabic, Turkish, or Bulgarian musics, you're sure to particularly
enjoy this album's first half, where the connection to Asia Minor is very
evident in the moods, rhythms and even actual instruments played - the 
bouzouki is by no means the only kind of lute played in Greece, and the 
various others on this album include the oud (the pear-shaped, fretless, 
'Arabic' lute) and the saz.  The names may vary, but the hand-drums deployed
by Archie Argyropoulos are essentially those also found from North Arfica
to the Middle East.  An Anglo-Australian's feet may not know quite how 
they're meant to move to the music, but they're most unlikely to saty still,
and (at least in my head) this is music for uplifting, graceful dancing,
rather than just a jerk'n'grind or a ploddy Morris clog.  Some of the songs
and tunes are very haunting, and quite transcend any particular language
(although the booklet has lyricss in both Greek and English, and a background
note to each piece).  George Galiatsos's "Deliana Twilight" is a very 
haunting slow dance lament, and with his borther Manuel he co-authored the
more celebratory "Ariadne's Dance" -both blessed by some lovely playing, 
especially Hector Cosmas's violin.

The players are all individually fine and more importantly Apodimi Compania
is a real band with its own sound, free of machanical additives and trend-
chasing production frills.  I suspect that Demotika is this quartet's 
greater love, and it's the best kind of love: well informed and respectful,
yet adventurous and inventive.  Melisma is warmly recommended, although a
whole album in the vein of this one's first half would be even more 
rewarding.  I'd also like to hear rather more of the lyra and singing of
Apodimi Compania's friend Michael Melambiotis.  His frequent live 
performances as an integral part of the group makes me re-ask the apparently
daft question a journalist once put to Dave Brubeck: 'And tell me, how many
of you are there in the quartet?"
=========

Mihalis


Michael Scordilis	   	|internet    miscord@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU