музыка

MELINA KANA - PORTRAIT

Network Medien, 2000
[world music, Greek]

Ten years ago the seductive voice and graceful looks of a young woman from Thessaloniki took critics and audiences by storm. Melina Kana, a student of philosophy at the time, was already well known in the youth scene. With her first album she became a household name throughout Greece and was hailed as the rising star of the Greek music world. Melina Kana is widely acknowledged as the top voice in her country. Her numerous CDs have all become bestsellers. Her expressive, crystalline voice is both gentle and strangely familiar. In the tradition of great female vocalists, she controls her voice with consummate skill, running the gamut of emotional and musical expression. She has the gift of transforming lyrics into living musical images, walking the tightrope between imagination and reality. The more you listen to the fascinating patchwork of sounds and traditions, the more it becomes a part of you. According to one critic, "Melina Kana's albums are shaped by the honesty of her heart and soul. In the spirit of the songs she sings, she looks into the eyes and the soul of her listener and communicates with her audience in an honest and authentic interpretation." Melina Kana works with the best of contemporary composers (including Nikos Xidakis, Thanasis Papakonstantinou) whose elegant arrangements and unforgettable harmonies also appeal to us directly. They combine eastern and western musical traditions and even dare to forge a link between Greek-Mediterranean and Central Asian-Oriental music. The ancient roots of the music of Thessaloniki and the folk music of the Balkans and Rembetiko are in there too. This painstakingly edited Network anthology presents a 70-minute portrait featuring the finest recordings from the past ten years and includes translations of the lyrics to give a deeper insight into these touching songs.