On Rebetika Rennaisance man Yannis Kyriakides indulges in electro-acoustic nostalgic collaboration with semi-regular sparring partner Andy Moor, delving into hauntological concepts by revisiting / reconfiguring old recordings of the titular Greek folk style. Kyriakides’s electronics and Moor’s guitar go well together, producing lithe, fluttering compositions frequently bathed in warm crackle and digital haze; faithful therefore to the mournful Mediterannean blues under investigation. While seemingly improvised around base samples and certain pre-determined patterns, the results are not far removed from the intense refinement of Kyriakides’s ‘academic’ chamber and orchestral compositions.
They get off to a fine, emotional start, ‘Minores’ channeling the skewed modes of Greek tradition through binary clicks, frayed sine tones and sparse guitar pings. ‘Katsaros’ foregrounds Moor’s guitar, plucking out lonesome runs imitating the bazouki of the original, which Kyriakides brings in and out in sporadic static-drenched bursts. Here, and in ‘A School Burnt Down’, the music recalls an updated, Greek version of a Sergio Leone soundtrack, shimmering digital pads replacing the strings but remaining equally moody and portentous. Elsewhere things are more rocky, lurching like a three-wheeled wagon in ‘Haremi’, noisy and confronting in ‘Sucker’, inconsistent perhaps in their relation to the source material but never less than engaging.
Joshua Meggitt
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