The Most Beautiful Sounds Next to Silence

The Byzantine lyra, or lira, was a medieval bowed, pear shaped stringed instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails. Sinopulous’s lyra is known as the Constaninople lyra and is presumably the same instrument, with perhaps some modern modifications.

When you set the sound of the Armenian duduk beside the lyra,  it certainly appears to operate on the same tonal territory. Like the stringed oud of Arab provenance, the residual effect is melancholy and yearning, although the lyra has been traditionally used in Greece for dances.

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Eight Winds is an utterly beautiful record, imagined into being with love by a stalwart enthusiast of his instrument. Born in 1974, the young Sokratis studied classical guitar, Byzantine music and folk song before embarking on the lyra at the age of 14.

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On this, his debut solo record, the jazz  quartet contribution does not detract from the sense of heritage and antiquity and the lead instrument is generously afforded space aplenty. In that regard it could be compared to the similarly tactful jazz accompaniment on Anouar Brahem’s recent record of oud music, Souvenance, another ECM release.

In his only recommendation to the players the night before the recording session in Athens in April 2014, Sinopoulos lent the musicians the following words of advice. "Especially in the solos, if you find yourself playing something that could be easily described as `jazz' or `folk' or 'classical', then try and avoid it. Without censoring ourselves, let's find instead the common roots of our improvising."

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Accordingly, Pianist Yann Keerim, Dimitris Tsekouras on double bass, and drummer Dimitris Emmanuel are utterly sympathetic on a record which conjures Aegean seas gilded by the sun, music that is infused for much of the time with a peculiar Byzantine sadness. 

Why is it that sad music can sometimes be balm for the soul, which is surely counter-intuitive? Yet this we invariably find is the case, and Eight Windsfollows suit, while also sounding the celebratory note, as in a track like the lissom, playful In Circles. Do not let this record fall below your radar.

(https://www.rte.ie)