Written by Sotiris Bekas
With a trilogy that includes two Cypriot folk songs (“I Vrysi ton Pegiotisson” and “To Tertin tis Kartoullas Mou“), singer Froso Stylianou introduces her upcoming album expected to be released in April, titled “Second Reading – Midnight in Sierra“. However, this trilogy hides something even deeper and more personal for Froso Stylianou, as it is dedicated to her homeland, Cyprus (she herself was born in Nicosia), and in this way, she expresses her feelings and statement on the island’s division. Indeed, the two Cypriot folk songs are brought together, one next to the other, as a cohesive substance, in a wonderful adaptation of Dionysis Savvopoulos’s “Tsamiko“, where some lyrics have been replaced with names of occupied cities and villages of Cyprus, while at the end of the song, there is also a brief melodic reference to the – also Cypriot – folk song “Psindri Vasilidzia mou“.
Froso Stylianou herself describes this particular recording as follows: “This musical collage is the dried tear. Where no catharsis occurred. No relief. You see, everything is still there. The occupying army, the ruins, the lies. Of others and our own. I was born a few years after the invasion of Cyprus, and they told me, ‘Here is your country. It’s half. This is what we have.’ Half my city, half my homeland, half my life, half my memories, half the stories, half the people. Perhaps inside me, I try to unite it. To imagine it whole. I grasp onto the songs, the music that makes dreams real. I forget and don’t forget. I step and don’t step into the now. I am the 80s, I am the generation that came after, that heard but didn’t see. That doesn’t know what it’s like to be whole. ‘I Vrysi ton Pegiotisson’, ‘To Tertin tis Kartoullas Mou’. Traditionally Cypriot, slightly paraphrased in the endings, is held tightly by ‘Tsamiko’, by Dionysis Savvopoulos. I thank him, not only for the adaptation license but also for allowing me to replace some of the song’s lyrics with names of occupied cities and villages of Cyprus. A musical measure before the legendary ending of ‘Tsamiko’, the melody heard on the piano is from the introduction of the traditional Cypriot song ‘Psindri Vasilidzia mou’. I felt they became one, so easily.
The intrusive shots in the video were taken last year with a mobile phone, from a looted house in Famagusta, by the sea. I also heard the quick breaths of the woman who entered her house for the first time in fifty years. I lowered the volume. It was unbearable. I thank the moving artists Andreas Apostolou, Giotis Kiourtsoglou, and Stefanos Dimitriou for the tremendous gift they gave me, to breathe life into my musical world with their talent.
This is my prayer, and I dedicate it to the people of Cyprus, and to every people fighting for their freedom today.”
Special mention should be made of the outstanding musical performance by Andreas Apostolou (Piano – Keyboards), Giotis Kiourtsoglou (Bass), and Stefanos Dimitriou (Drums).
The material from the video was recorded and filmed live at Studio Sierra in Athens.
Stream/Download:
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