THANASIS SKORDALOS - LIVE RECORDINGS (2 CD)

THANASIS SKORDALOS - LIVE RECORDING (2CD+BOOKLET)
Music, lyrics, lyra, singing: Thanassis Skordalos

Lute: Manousos Papatsaras, George Tamiolakis

Magical musical moments captured on this recording in the Cretan musical scene "Aretoussa" 1977

Thanasis Skordalos, with his special and unique style in Cretan lyra, through this recording shows us the power of Cretan music!

We are very proud to present in our series The Archives of Cretan Music, this live recording of Crete’s master-musician, the late Thanasis Skordalos. For those familiar with Cretan music, Thanasis Skordalos was one of the most important figures in the development of Cretan music of the 20th century and a legend in his own lifetime. Thanasis Skordalos was born in 1920 in the village Spili in the province of Rethymnon. Spili is the home of many of Crete’s great lyra-players of the past and the present, and Skordalos undoubtedly was the greatest representative of their tradition. He began playing the lyra at the age of 9 years old and his career spanned over 65 years. He was an exceptional lyra player as well as a prolific composer who managed to balance a stringently traditional approach with his own personal creativity in a very unique way. The recordings in this collection are live recordings which were made in 1977 at “Aretousa”, a popular venue for Cretan music at the time, where lyra-players would accompany dancers until the small hours of the morning. Skordalos was always highly appreciated by good dancers because of his precise rhythmic phrasing which perfectly complimented their improvisations, as well as for his uncanny ability to always choose exactly the right melody for each dancer. In fact most of Crete’s best dancers would agree that, when it came to accompanying dance, there simply was no one like Thanasis Skordalos. These recordings were made on a simple cassette recorder by Stelios Vassilakis, himself an excellent lyra-player, while Skordalos was playing for the dancers and other Cretan music aficionados who would gather every night at “Aretousa”. In this atmosphere it is possible to see such an artist at his very best. Even though he made hundreds of studio recordings during his life, Thanasis Skordalos, like most Cretan lyra-players, was only really in his element when performing live within the context of a glenti or celebration. It was here that he was able to play extended medleys of syrtos melodies, tailoring each one to the needs of each of the dancers who would, one after the other, take the lead position. Quite frequently one can here someone in the audience shouting out the name of one of Skordalos’ most famous melodies in the hope that he would play it for them. Skordalos, in his effort to raise the spirits of all present gradually to a crescendo, would invariably oblige them. This aspect of Cretan music is very important indeed. A lyra-player is not a concert artist, rather he is a master of ceremonies at the center of a celebration which is simultaneously strictly ordered as well as wild and ecstatic.  This delicate balance is in some way reminiscent of what is described in ancient texts concerning Dionysiac ceremonies. There are plenty of lyra-players today who can bring their audiences to a wild frenzy, but probably no one who can strike the perfect balance of discipline and ecstasy which characterized a Skordalos performance and which is perhaps the defining element of Cretan music. Thanasis Skordalos died in 1998.

Michalis Aerakis, Seistron