All About Jazz, PA
Sept 5 2008

Songs of An Other
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico

By John Kelman Discuss

Greek singer Savina Yannatou and her longstanding group, Primavera en
Salonico, continue to mine music from a wealth of seemingly disparate
cultures, proving that politics and religion may divide, but music
unites. Avoiding the liner notes, what’s perhaps most surprising about
Songs of An Other is how the songs may feel as if they’re aligned with
one culture when, in fact, they come from another. It’s all part of
the boundary-breaking aesthetic that has defined Yannatou’s group
since they first came together in the mid-’90s.

With identical personnel and a similarly eclectic instrumental blend
as on Sumiglia (ECM, 2005), four years of extensive touring has
resulted in an avant world music where the interaction is at a far
deeper level than ever before. It’s also created the kind of implicit
trust required to make Songs of An Other a far more improvisational
affair’the most profoundly outré disc, in fact, of Yannatou’s
career.

It’s also the first time’at least since the its 2004 ECM debut Terra
Nostra’that Primavera en Salonico has augmented music sourced from
Mediterranean and Eastern European countries with original material,
showcasing the septet’s increasingly open-minded and open-ended
approach. Yannatou’s oblique melody on the dragon-slaying song `O
Yannis kai O Drakos’ acts as the abstract tone poem’s focal point,
where primary arranger Kostas Vomvolos’ accordion creates an abstract
wash of sound over which the group’s regular bassist, Michalis
Siganidis, trades ideas with percussionist Kostas Theodorou, heard
here on a second double-bass. Yannatou possesses a rare capacity for
warm nuance and extreme extended techniques; a breadth of
expressiveness that positions her alongside Norwegian vocal innovators
Maja Ratkje and Sidsel Endresen, albeit in a completely different
context.

`Perperouna,’ possesses a more foreboding but clearly defined melody,
sung with increasing fervor over a Burundi rhythm, but ultimately
heads into territory far freer than anything previously heard from the
group. The basis of Songs of An Other may indeed, be songs, but
despite form defining material ranging from the propulsive yet lyrical
Greek closer, `Ah, Marouili’ to the dervish-like’and surprisingly
Celtic”Za lioubih malmo tri momi’ from Bulgarian Macedonia, Yannatou
and the group take greater liberties, whether it’s her near-percussive
vocal improvisations or the free-improv proclivities of Yannatou,
violinist Kyriakos Gouventas and Vomvolos during the even fierier
`Radile.’

As intense as some of Songs of An Other can be, there are moments of
haunting, ethereal beauty. Armenia’s `Sassuni Oror’ is near ambient in
nature, whereas the Serbian `Smilj Smiljana’ possesses a quiet
majesty; melancholy, yet strangely optimistic.

The same way that ECM has inspired a traditional folk musician like
Robin Williamson to explore the juncture of poetry, simple melody and
exploration on The Iron Stone (ECM, 2007), so too has the label
encouraged Yannatou to expand her horizons, even while remaining true
to the essentials that define her music. With the joyously
unpredictable Songs of An Other, Yannatou and Primavera Salonico enter
uncharted territory, leaving where they’ll go next is anybody’s guess.

Visit Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico on the web.

Track listing: Saerei Hovin Mernem; Za liobih maimo tri momi; Smilj
Smiljana; Dunie Au; O Yannis kai O Drakos; Albanian Lullabye; Omar
hashem leyakoyv; Radile; Sassuni Oror; Addio Amore; Perperouna; Ah
Marouli.

Personnel: Savina Yannatou: voice; Yannis Alexandris: oud, guitar;
Kyriakos Gouventas: violin, viola; Harris Lambrakis: nay; Michalis
Siganidis: double-bass; Kostas Theodorou: percussion, double-bass;
Kostas Vomvolos: quanun, accordion.

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