Ηρακλής Οικονόμου

“The seas that separate us are the seas that unite us. Even the lands that were conquered and colonized exchanged cultures. And if scholars have not yet clarified and separated the eras and influences, the artists brought together and united any differences. I was led to this work (so different...

From Sophia Loren to Harry Belafonte and from Edith Piaf to The Beatles, a myriad of global stars recorded Greek songs, inspired primarily by the melodies of Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. These internationally renowned performers became ambassadors of Greek music around the world, singing...

When the Greek military seized power in 1967, the composer Mikis Theodorakis called for resistance against the dictatorship. The junta prohibited the performance of his music and placed him under arrest. In his cell, suspended between life and death, he wrote 36 lyrical texts in an almost euphoric...

Ezgi Ceylan, Alihan Erdogan and Seven Plane Trees and Shadows Singer Ezgi Ceylan and classical guitarist Alihan Erdogan offer a unique musical bridging of the two sides of the Aegean – how truly inspiring it is to have two talented music artists from Turkey performing traditional and modern...

Today’s track list includes songs with references to Constantinople and its fall, which signified the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The lamentations, drawn primarily from the album “The Fall of the Great City”, are representative samples of the Greek music tradition of various regions,...

‘Marble King’ is a collection of instrumental pieces by Stamatis Spanoudakis inspired by Constantine Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor reigning from 1449 until his death in battle at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Spanoudakis invites us to a journey through time, fuelled by his impeccable...

Byzantine Vesper (Vyzantinos Esperinos) is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated albums of Greek folk music. Released in 1973, this is a collection of songs written by Lefteris Papadopoulos, composed by Apostolos Kaldaras and performed by George Dalaras and Haris Alexiou. Here Kaldaras...

Music critic Giorgos V. Monemvasitis notes: “Charming and distant, the field of Byzantine Music keeps its secrets well and tightly sealed in secluded cells, in sparse libraries, in hermetically sealed chests. It constitutes a timeless challenge for daring connoisseurs. Strong hands and brave...

The week that starts today is dedicated to the presence of the Byzantine empire in Greek music and song. We start our week-long journey to Byzantium with modern songs that have lyrics containing references to it – to the days, the galleys and the faces of Byzantium. Nikos Androulakis, Costas Mantzios,...

A big part of the Greek song can be categorised as ‘protest song’, i.e. as a type of song informed by political critique and vision. From Giannis Markopoulos to Nikolas Asimos and from Thanos Mikroutsikos to the Katsimiha brothers, countless composers and creators connected their work with the...

Mikis Theodorakis was not only a superb composer but also a deeply political leader and intellectual. His assessment of the situation after the coup d'état of April 21, 1967, was broadly as follows: “The dictatorship of the colonels was in the long run a great mistake on the part of the Americans....

The protest songs of Manos Loizos The political character of composer Manos Loizos’ art comes out effortlessly through his songs, from "The Leader" to "World War III" and from "The Tree" to "The Soldier". Today's walk through his creations, which are replete with humanism and militancy, is based...

Music critic Ilan Solomon writes: “Panos is the birth of a generation of giving, a generation of hardship and struggle for freedom. He endured until the end of his life without protest, having poetry and song as the balm of his soul”. Today, we will be appreciating the songwriting art of Panos Tzavellas,...

This week is dedicated to the 1973 uprising of the Athens Polytechnic School against the dictatorship and to the anti-fascist struggle today. Our track list today is based on a collection of anti-fascist songs titled “Fascism will not die on its own – kill it!”, which was released in 2014. As...

We conclude our week-long tribute to Ritsos with two works that are representative of the sound of the 1970s and the political song that prevailed in the …long second half of that decade. Marios Tokas’ songs are based on ten previously unreleased poems of Yannis Ritsos while Giorgos Kotsonis sets...

The setting to music of Ritsos’ Blackened Clay Pot by Christos Leontis is definitely one of the greatest moments in the history of Greek song. This is an album of immense emotional power, through which the political-humanist messages of the poet are revealed in their fullest, universal form. Blackened...

From Mikis Theodorakis’ rich and long engagement with Ritsos’ poetry, we choose to focus on Epitafios, a poem that Ritsos wrote in 1936 and that Theodorakis set to music in 1960. Today, we will be appreciating a 2000 live recording of this historic work, orchestrated and curated by maestro Stavros...

The encounter of Thanos Mikroutsikos with Ritsos led to the Cantata for Makronisos, a collection of songs and avant-garde sounds that remains as pioneering as it was when it was released in 1976. In the poetry of Ritsos, composer Mikroutsikos found a fertile ground for experimentation, including an...