The buzz and
the Byzantine

>> The “inn” sound of Greek ethno-psych-pop
star Kristi Stassinopoulou

by RAF KATIGBAK

Psychedelic bands have always had a thing for hotels. For Nico and the Velvet Underground it was the Chelsea, for the Eagles it was the California and for Jim Morrison it was, well, the Morrison. But for Greek musician Kristi Stassinopoulou, her favourite hotel was not some semi-swank Manhattan artists’ refuge, nor did it have anything to do with mirrors on the ceiling or pink champagne on ice. No, Stassinopoulou’s favourite hotel was located in Kalamata, on the southernmost tip of continental Greece, and that hotel belonged to her father.

“That part of Greece,” she explains, “is the area nearest to the three big continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, so as a child I would listen to all this music on the radio coming from the Mediterranean Sea and Africa, alongside music from Turkey and the Balkan countries. It really was an influential experience.”

Musically, Stassinopoulou describes her own sound as Balkan-ethno-trance, a sonic tapestry woven from the threads of Greece’s traditional folk music, Balkan polyrhythms, electronic beats and haunting vocals sung in Greek. It’s a sound that found inspiration not only in the voice of Egypt’s Oum Kalthoum and the African Jajouka, but also from American psychedelic rock bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. “Many hippies from the West stayed at that hotel. This was in the late 1960s, during the era of a very conservative Greek dictatorship, so naturally, as a child, I was curious about their strange manners and the music they were listening to.”

After studying traditional Greek music and theatre, she soon discovered how short the distance was between psychedelic rock and traditional Greek folk. “One simple musical example is the monotone background of a single tone vibrating from the beginning to the end of the song. It’s the strongest characteristic of secular Greek Byzantine music, but you can also find that in the Velvet Underground as well.”

In the mid-’90s, rural Greek folk music, which was once dismissed as low-class or too nationalistic (thanks to its use as propaganda by the late-’60s dictatorship) regained acceptance and was rediscovered by a new generation of young musicians. However, the same youth who rediscovered it became its staunchest purists, something Stassinopoulou doesn’t entirely agree with. “On one hand it’s a good thing because you should protect tradition, on the other hand you can’t be overprotective. If something is really good, it won’t need your protection.”

It’s this deep understanding of and respect for the old ways that has even the harshest hometown critics singing praise for Echotropia, her latest effort. With one foot firmly planted in the rhythms, melodies and instrumentation of the past, and the other pointed towards a fresh mixture of future electronic beats and textures, it’s easy to see why there’s such a buzz. “In the end, when you do something because you love it and when it comes from your heart, people can tell.” :

With Epsilon at le Spectrum on Wednesday, July 17, 8pm, $24

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