Jazz Articles about Sokratis Votskos

About Sokratis Votskos

Catching Up With

The Ritual Music of Kolida Babo

by Lawrence Peryer
December 6, 2024

High in northern Greece's Epirus region, an abandoned village sits empty, yet its voice echoes through the music of Kolida Babo. The woodwind duo of Sokratis Votskos and Harris P draws its name from an ancient winter ritual of fire and dance. Their album Spirits Of Mauronoros (Veego Records, 2024) finds inspiration in this remote borderland near Albania, where emptiness and life intertwine. Between Athens and Aridaia, they blend Armenian duduk melodies with Greek folk traditions, free jazz, ...

Album Review

Kolida Babo: Spirits Of Mauronoros

Read "Spirits Of Mauronoros" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 7, 2024

Here is some strange and magical music. A synthesis of global electro-acoustic modal jazz and the hermetic folk music of Epirus, a remote mountain region in northwestern Greece. It is played on traditional Balkan instruments--duduk and kaval double-reed woodwinds, qanun zither and gaida bagpipes--together with soprano and baritone saxophones and Moog, Roland and Farfisa synths and keyboards. The music is simultaneously ancient and modern, roots and futuristic. Generis does not come more sui than this. Kolida Babo ...