Savina Yannatou studied singing with Gogo Georgilopoulou and Spiros Sakkas in Athens, and later attended postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with a
scholarship awarded by Mousigetis Foundation. In 1979 she began working as a professional, in the greek radio 3, participating in the daily program “Lilipoupolis” in collaboration with the composer Lena Platonos. Following that, her career took off collaborating with many greek composers (Platonos, Mamangakis, Kypourgos, Katsoulis, Gregoriou, Marangopoulos, Kamarotos, a.o.) and having released numerous albums since then.
Having built her reputation as a singer of Baroque, Renaissance, and early music, Savina Yannatou has increasingly veered toward avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Accompanied by her band,
Primavera en Salonico, which she formed in 1993, Yannatou continues to demonstrate her mastery of Mediterranean music. Her repertoire includes songs from Sardinia, Corsica, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Cyprus, Albania, Spain, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and her homeland in Greece. Gradually, she has extended her vocal techniques to include throat singing, glossolalia and ululations among others.
Besides that, her repertoire consists mainly of Greek music, although she has been a founding member of an Early music ensemble (Εργαστήρι Παλιάς Μουσικής), and has always displayed a keen interest in
exploring free jazz and avant-garde music. Said explorations have led her to on- and off-stage collaborations and sessions with international musicians such as Barry Guy, Peter Kowald, Floros Floridis, Günther Pitscheider, Gerald Preinfalk of the band BPM, Ken Vandermark, Sussan Deyhim, Damo Suzuki of the krautrock group Can, and Kiya Tabassian of the Ensemble Constantinople.
In the mid-1990s, she joined forces with jazz / traditional musicians forming a band known as
'Primavera en Salonico', interpreting Sephardic and Mediterranean songs, having recorded 8 CDs in Lyra and ECM records and giving concerts all over the world. She has been a founding member of an Early Music ensemble in Athens ("Early Music Workshop") in the '80s. She has always displayed a keen interest in exploring free jazz music.
She has composed music for theater (National Theater of Greece, National Theater of Northern Greece,
Thessalian Theater, Theater of Neos Kosmos, "Playback" theater, for the plays: "Medea", "Bacchae", "Ifigenia in Aulis", "Dibuk", “The Caukasian Chalk Circle", "Persona", "The Suppliants") and for pantomime performances. She occasionally participates in workshops, teaching vocal improvisation for actors and musicians.
PRIMAVERA EN SALONICO
The group was formed in 1993, when this group of musicians, under the direction of Kostas Vomvolos,
collaborated for the production of the Sephardic Folk Songs with Savina Yannatou. But before that its members have been collaborating in various groups, recordings and music projects since the early eighties. The musical activity of the group members covers a broad range of styles: from European classical and old music to Byzantine music, traditional Greek music and music from the Near East to jazz, all of which with a strong emphasis on modern musical tendencies and improvisation.
The group members have published some 15 CDs as composers, soloists or members of other groups,
while the overall number of appearances on CDs surpasses 150 titles. The group -- which focuses on a mix of European classical, Byzantine, traditional Greek, and Near Eastern music -- creates a world music sound with a combination of Western instruments (guitar, violin, and double bass) and Eastern instruments, including toumbeleki, bendir, tambourine, daoul, kanonaki, nay, and tamboura.
contemporary music forms. Insisting on acoustic instruments, half of which have their origin in the East, they attempt at exploiting their specific sound, oftentimes also exploring them to the limits of their possibilities. Beyond her exquisite interpretive capacity Savina Yannatou gives special emphasis to the expression of the "music" of each different language, without letting that stop her from oftentimes using her voice as one more instrument.
With a background that combines classical studies and "authentic" traditional music with improvised
music and jazz, Savina Yannatou and the musicians of Primavera en Salonico find themselves like rope-dancers on the chord which connects the modal music of the East with the equivalent music of Western Europe, music of the Middle Ages and the popular polyphonies of the Mediterranean. Beginning from the melismatic riches of the Eastern Maqam and the charming irregular rhythms they explore the territory of collective free improvisation, meeting there modern jazz.
Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico have been giving concerts all over the world since 1996. This includes the whole of Europe, the United States, Israel and Taiwan, and venues like the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican in London, the 92nd Street Y in New York, The Holon Theatre in Tel
Aviv, the Melbourne Concert Hall and various WOMAD festivals, as well as numerous other world music festivals, like Stern Grove in San Francisco, Taipeh World Music Festival, Fiesta des Suds in Marseille and many others. Highlights of 2003 include the Moers new Jazz Festival in Germany, Music Meeting in Holland and a sold-out Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, in 2004 Etnosur Festival in Spain and Musicas do Mundo in Portugal, while 2005 started with a concert at the 20st edition of the International Jazz festival Muenster in Germany.
MEMBERS
Savina Yannatou - Vocals
Kostas Vomvolos - Quanun, orchestration
Yannis Alexandris - Oud, guitar
Michalis Siganidis - Double bass
Kyriakos Gouventas - Violin, viola
Kostas Theodorou - percussion
Haris Lambrakis - Nay, recorders
ALBUMS FOR THIS COMPILATION:
01. TERRA NOSTRA 2001
02. SUMIGLIA 2005
03. SONGS OF AN OTHER 2008
04. SONGS OF THESSALONIKI 2015
TRACKS
01. Evga Mana Mou (From The Album: Sumiglia 2005)
02. Me To Feggari Perpato (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
03. Saleri Hovin Mermen (From The Album: Songs Of An Other 2008)
04. Apolitikion Agiou Dimitriou (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
05. Muineira (From The Album: Sumiglia 2005)
06. Prismo Dojde Od Soluna Grada (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
07. Ah, Marouli (From The Album: Songs Of An Other 2008)
08. Dunie Au (From The Album: Songs Of An Other 2008)
09. Ivan Nadonka (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
10. Iptidadan Yol Sorarsan (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
11. El Barquero (The Batman) (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
12. La Cantiga Del Fuego (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
13. Sto Pa Kai Sto Xanaleo (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
14. Tin Patrida mou Ehasa (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
15. Kadife (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
16. Yanno Yannovitse (From The Album: Sumiglia 2005)
17. Yedi Koule (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
18. Ah Mon Die (Ah My God) (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
19. Smil Smiljana (From The Album: Songs Of An Other 2008)
20. Una Muchacha En Selanica (From The Album: Songs Of Thessaloniki 2015)
21. Xanthi Evreopoula, No Seas Capritchosa (Blond Jewish Girl) (From The Album: Terra Nostra 2001)
Savina Yannatou is the best Greek Female Ethnic vocalist and this is a compilation that I made from 4 albums. It's not available in the music stores and I offer this one to those who want cross a bridge between East and west and explore new musical frontiers. Free your soul following this voice of Angels.
KOSTAS
Flac Size: 665 MB
Savina Yannatou & Primavera En Salonico: Ta Sefaraditika HERE
