When That Great Composer Met That Woman's Voice (Thanasis Papakonstantinou & Melina Kana at the "Seducing Foreign Land", 1995)

Thanasis Papakonstantinou

ust the word "influenced", could not really describe the relation between rembetiko and modern Greek composers. Rembetiko is considered dead. Some might still experience it quite emotionally but it's gone long time ago (around mid 50's) turning to a show piece. However, it certainly is a reference point for a numerous trends and paths in modern Greek music as well as something more than that: identity.

Today, a stunning song of a famous Greek composer is presented. It is a love song, written in mid 90s by Thanasis Papakonstantinou (Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου). That strange guy has started recording in 1992 with an album named "Saint Nostalgia" (Αγία Νοσταλγία) which was directly referced to Rembetiko with sophisticated lyrics. His second recording took place in 1995 named "On Andromeda and on Earth" (Στην Ανδρομέδα και στην Γη) and most songs were performed by Melina Kana (Μελίνα Κανά), a woman's voice that matched perfectly with the spirit of the album. The composer continued releasing albums until today with many changes along the way on the music style, the forms etc. We will certainly come back to him later on.

This song (dragged from his 2nd album) is what a woman says to her beloved one, that he had left for another country and he stayed quite long as it appears. Notice the balanced way that all these instruments come together with her mature and tricky voice.

Melina Kana

Seducing Foreign Land [Πλάνα Ξενιτιά]

music, lyrics: Thanasis Papakonstantinou

vocals: Melina Kana

I cut the sea in two

and there I am opening a path

for you to come into my arms again

straight from the depths of the map

You ‘d better stop chatting me up

that all you want is to return

and supposingly the Cyclops

are raising objections

I turn my face upwards

towards the vaulted sky

for you to see the grief in my eyes

by way of a satellite

But I am waiting in vain

and the memory has faded

In seducing foreign lands

how many has been swallowed...