Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico

Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico
Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou + Michalis Siganidis
Savina Yannatou
Primavera en Salonico
Primavera en Salonico
Primavera en Salonico

Songs

Greek Song from Smyrna
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  • country:Greece
  • region:Mediterranean
  • style(s):Experimental, Acoustic
  • label:ECM Records
  • type:Band, Solo
  • instrumentation:instrumental, vocal
  • artist posted by:United World - Music Management

Line up

  • Haris Lambrakis (nay)
  • Kostas Theodorou (percussion)
  • Kostas Vomvolos (quanun, accordion, kalimba)
  • Kyriakos Gouventas (violin)
  • Michalis Siganidis (Double bass)
  • Savina Yannatou (singer)
  • Yannis Alexandris (oud, guitar, tamboura)

Based on traditional material mainly from the Mediterranean Area Savina Yannatou and the group Primavera en Salonico offer an open sound without borders or labels, from simple songs extending to contemporary music forms.
Insisting on acoustic instruments, half of which have their origin in the East, they attempt at exploiting their specific sound, oftentimes also exploring them to the limits of their possibilities. Beyond her exquisite interpretive capacity Savina Yannatou gives special emphasis to the expression of the "music" of each different language, without letting that stop her from oftentimes using her voice as one more instrument.

Countless raving reviews in press outlets all over the world, including the LA times, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Independent, New York Times, and many more, are a witness to the wide acclaim of their work:

"Dark-toned but ambrosial, highly disciplined yet seemingly bursting with a soul of pure flame, the rather staggering Athens-born singer Savina Yannatou is a virtuosic chameleon adept at an extensive range of vocal traditions (and languages) from the Mediterranean region not just interpreting but leaping off from these old folk musics with a daring, exploratory technique and far-flung tonal scope that allows her to stamp it all with a brash intelligence and some might say punky attitude. There's not a thing dried-up or academic about her new takes on ancient songs... Yannatou really lets the blood out of these songs, brazenly improvising on them, as if called by some inner primal force, kneeding and kneedling them, caressing them, smearing their borders and launching out something entirely new in the process." John Payne, L.A. Weekly

Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico have been giving concerts all over the world since 1996. This includes the whole of Europe, the United States, Australia, Israel and Taiwan, and venues like the Queen Elizabeth Hall (various times sold-out) and the Barbican in London, UCLA in Los Angeles, the Melbourne Concert Hall and various WOMAD festivals, as well as numerous other world music and jazz festivals to name a few: Stern Grove in San Francisco, Taipeh World Music Festival, Fiesta des Suds in Marseille, Moers new Jazz Festival, Music Meeting in Holland, Etnosur Festival in Spain, Musicas do Mundo in Portugal, International Jazz festival Muenster.

Together with the group "Primavera en Salonico" Savina Yannatou recorded "Primavera en Salonico", Sephardic Folk Songs from Salonica (Lyra), Mediterranea (Sounds True, USA/ Lyra), The Virgin Maries (Lyra), Terra Nostra, a live CD licensed by ECM Records in 2003, then two more productions by ECM, result of creative collaboration with producer and label founder Manfred Eicher: Sumiglia, which was released in March 2005 and in 2008, Songs Of An Other