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Album Details

• Artist: Kristi Stassinopoulou
• Album: Echotropia
• Label: Tinder
• Year of Release: 2001
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-03-31

Kristi Stassinopoulou (henceforth referred to as just Kristi) has created an album of pseudo-world music that would fit nicely on the genre-defying Six Degrees label. Kristi comes to us from Greece (I think her last name gave it away) and after growing up on traditional Greek music and dabbling in music as diverse as Jefferson Airplane, Patti Smith, and Fairport Convention she decided to record a mixture of all of the above. Her 1999 release with songwriting partner Stathis Kalyviotis climbed to the top of the European charts, which was the first time event for any Greek artist. Her sophomore album, Echotropia (combining the Greek word echos meaning sound and tropia meaning turned around) delves even deeper into the world fusion territory. Almost entirely sung in her native Greek and with such traditional instruments as zournas, tsoumbous, and accordion she and her friend Stathis have created a mesmerizing array of tracks. Her haunting vocal lines are inspired by Byzantine psalmody. Thankfully, to get some understanding on what Kristi is singing about, they have translated all the song titles as well as the lyrics. Although the lyrics don’t quite have the same power as a foreign language they still help with conveying the thoughts and feelings that Kristi had when she wrote the tracks. This is a fine addition to any world music collection.

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