10. PsarantonisNogo (I Reckon)
I heard it in Australia through friends. Psarantonis is a lyra player, which is a small bowed instrument. I played the album to Warren Ellis and he really loved it. We’ve looked for those records a lot over the years since, and they’re very hard to find. The reason why I heard about it is because Psarantonis’ son [and Xylouris White bandmate], George Xylouris, ended up in Australia. Melbourne’s one of the biggest Greek cities in the world.
Psarantonis is a folk musician who really goes into abstractness in a very beautiful way. It’s very lyrical and it’s very moving. It feels very ancient but it also feels very modern, and it speaks very directly.
