Album review: eKulrura (Hungary)

“A promising debut album”

Last week a surprise gift arrived from Greece, the introductory LP from Thanos Stavridis. With the help of the cover I could find out that his favorite instrument is the accordion which is surprising cause his home country is more known about bouzouki or guitar. After listening it many times I could say the two determined element of its music is jazz and folk music. Jazz is more dominant, however many times the folk side/motif come into view.

The recordings of the musicians are not a constant composition, all numbers recorded in different line-up, with a little exaggeration, but this is a benefit of the album. Once as we would sit in a bar while a band softly playing in the background (Morning Sunshine), and on other hand- staying in jazz line – I was charmed by the accordion and the guitar solo. Of course I liked better the Greek melodies such as “Blue 9”, which pop up the Turkish whistle the zurna. I would rank as a specialty the INEMA song cause here a guest singer Matoula Zamani has been invited to the studio, secondly because they put some oriental motif and, last but not least, very interesting instrumentation, they put a lot of ideas into the 8 min long song.

A suitcase full of dreams is a promising debut album, where Thanos Stavridis did not want to be in the front but he wants to show more his ability as a composer.

I feel The marriage of jazz and folk music is still taking shape, according to him, sometimes the jazz is stronger, sometimes the folk music, however this album is a guarantee that in the future his career should be monitored.

I would offer the album for those who like Greek and jazz music

source: http://www.sound-and-image.de/review_3219.htm