People call Rembetika the Greek blues. I’m sure there are more definitive compilations that have been made, but this is the one that I happened to find at a certain point. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and Greek populations were expelled from Asia Minor, they then were compelled to come to Greece. This is the music that developed in a lot of the port cities, from this kind of underclass of immigrants. 

It has a lot of the influence of Byzantine music, hymns that people would be familiar with, and there’s so many great voices. I love the sound of the Greek language, and it somehow translates into the singers. Dimitris Mitropanos is really my hero in terms of Greek music. He’s not actually Rembetika, he’s Laïkó, which is the music that came after Rembetika. He has this amazing, enigmatic voice. 

I love Greek Orthodox music and Greek Orthodox churches as well. They just know what’s going on. There’s a great Greek Orthodox cathedral in London [Saint Sophia Cathedral in Bayswater]. You can go in the evening when they do the vespers, it’s worth the trip.