Yannatou is emerging as one of the most inventive interpreters of traditional music from around the world. While most of her musical contemporaries in Greece and the Mediterranean have gone "Eurovision" (something of an "American Idol" equivalent), Yannatou has continued to make music her way, blending global folk history and jazz-like modern improvisation. … In Sumiglia, Yannatou uses her now-signature range as theatre. She sounds richly feminine in bittersweet waves in an Armenian love ballad, almost masculine in the heaviness of the Corsican title track. She sighs and scats like Kate Bush in an interpretation of a Greek lullaby, sounding like a New Age fairy in a child's wildest dreams.

Welche Souver?nit?t, welchen Mut und welches Bekenntnis zur Verletzbarkeit durch die rueckhaltlose Eroeffnung eines eigenen Standpunkts schenkt diese wunderbare Saengerin ihrem Publikum. Gemeinsam mit der herausragend gut besetzten Formation Primavera en Salonico um den Multiinstrumentalisten Kostas Vomvolos setzt die Yannatou auf Sumiglia einer auf den ersten Blick sehr heterogenen Region ein ueberraschend geschlossenes musikalisches Denkmal: dem Mittelmeerraum und Osteuropa. Sie verfuegt ueber ein großartiges Gespuer fuer Identitaeten, deren Kerne sie behutsam herausloest und sich begegnen laesst. Das Ergebnis ist in hoechstem Maße inspirierend. ... Savina Yannatou ist eine jener Kuenstlerinnen, von denen jeder ... eine Aufnahme im Regal stehen haben sollte - mindestens.

Yannatou's choice of material takes in the whole of the Mediterranean from Spain to Albania and Yannatou delivers the emotion in each song as if it were her own. Her musicians swing like a jazz group, dance like a folk ensemble and have the soul of a blues band and this is a lovely record.

Choc du mois

Un registre ?tendu sans crispation, ni d?monstration, une perfection du timbre qui n'exclut ni la d?contraction, ni une relative libert? timbrale. La voix r?pond ainsi sans hiatus aux exigences du chant classique ou du chant populaire, de la candeur des ballades aux narquoiseries libertines du cabaret en passant par l'ivresse de la danse. … Ses choix esth?tiques sont incontestablement marqu?s par les m?lismes de l'Orient, mais aussi par la libert? de pens?e acquise par le chant contemporain depuis Berio et Cathy Berberian, et de fa?on plus permanente par la prise d'initiative du jazz. Une comp?tence qu'elle partage avec ses musiciens. … La production de Manfred Eicher r?pond tr?s pertinemment aux besoins de ce folklore int?rieur pour s'?panouir.

On her first studio-produced album for ECM, Savina Yannatou exhibits a breathtaking emotional and musical range. She sings in a dozen languages (none of them English) and on each song shapes her persona to the role. For example, the is the Greek brief of the album's opener, "Evga Mana Moui"- her beautiful, shivery voice backed with chiming accordion and violin- and a Moldavian orphan in "Porondos Viz Partjan." For "Orrio Tto Fengo" she sings in a husky whisper, while on "Tulbah" she emits wild ululations a la Yoko Ono.

When the Athens-born singer/composer hooked up with the amazing group Primavera en Salonico 12 years ago, she already had collaborated with the legendary Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis and worked in musical settings including free-improv: thus the experimental edge of "Ela Ipne Ke PareTo," in which she explores fragmentism in speech and melody, purring and Bjorking along entertainingly. It's a striking contrast to her haunting a capella section in "Porondos" and her gutsy, dramatic delivery in the Sicily-inspired "Terra Ca Nun Senti."

At every turn the members of the Primavera ensemble perfectly match the mood, energy, and intelligence of the singer. This is a remarkable album.

On her first recording under Manfred Eicher's auspices (ECM licensed her live Terra Nostra disc in 2003), Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou conducts a sweeping and stunning musical tour of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. She covers a daunting amount of cultural and historical territory - adding songs from Spain, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, Sicily, Corsica, Armenia, Palestine, and Albania to the three from her native Greece - and sings the wide-ranging traditional repertoire in 12 different languages. But what's most impressive is the depth of emotion Yannatou conveys, regardless of borders or linguistic differences. Whether the scene is a Moldavian riverbank, an Armenian doorstep, or a Palestenian wedding, Yannatou cuts to the quick and seemingly expresses every nuance of feeling.

Classically trained, steeped in such roots traditions as Sephardic folk song, and experienced as an avant-garde improviser (she was influenced by Diamanda Galas), Yannatou closely adheres to the melodies but takes dramatic liberties with vocal timbre, phrasing, and dynamics, occasionally venturing into riveting interludes of wordless vocalese, ethereal overdubs, and variations on throat singing. Led by arranger and multi-instrumentalist Kostas Vomvolos (accordion, qanun, and kalimba), the six-piece Primavera en Salonico band doesn't just accompany Yannatou; it creates interactive soundscapes by behaving more like an improvisory orchestra (not unlike the Art Ensemble of Chicago) of strings (tambour, oud, acoustic guitar, bass), flutes, and percussion.

As producer, Eicher is sensitive to both group chemistry and the resultant democracy of sounds, from deep bass through the alto and soprano range of the voice to the delicate ticks of thumb-piano. He achieves crystalline instrumental clarity and definition, and outlines the music virtual 3-D across an ample but not exaggerated soundstage in which Yannatou's exquisite singing is always the center of attention.

Was die griechische S?ngerin Savina Yannatou zusammen mit dem Ensemble Primavera en Salonico da macht, d?rfte einmalig auf der Welt sein. Sumiglia versammelt vierzehn Songs aus dem Mittelmeer- und dem osteurop?ischen Raum, von Spanien bis zur Ukraine, von Armenien bis Italien. Diese werden jedoch nicht einfach gespielt, sondern f?rmlich verdaut - eingesponnen in ein fragiles Gespinst. ... Immer wenn sich Raum bietet, ergreift das Sextett die Möglichkeit und verwandelt diese traditionellen Songs in etwas Neues. Das geschieht immer mit Einf?hlungsverm?gen und Respekt; und die unglaublich wandelbare Stimme von Savina Yannatou ist schlicht und einfach sensationell.

Savina Yannatou unassumingly strolled on stage Sunday at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall, her slender figure garbed in a flowing red chiffon tunic. Her most notable attribute: an apparent reluctance to perform, almost shyness.
She announced each song in a soft, gentle voice, sometimes simply providing a title and the number's country of origin. Occasionally, she recited an English translation of a song's lyrics.
For the first few numbers, the Greek singer's low-key demeanor dominated the music as well. Overt charisma - despite a growing r?sum? of rave reviews - was clearly not her game. Singing with precision and control, reading her songs from a notebook on a music stand as she clutched the microphone, she made no apparent effort to invest her performance with anything other than a calculated focus on her songs.
This, despite the fact that the music she has explored through some 20 albums, most of it from Mediterranean countries, simmers with the passion of centuries of traditional songs.
Backstage before the performance, part of only her second U.S. tour, Yannatou displayed similar reserve. Almost dwarfed by a large armchair, the small, fine-boned Greek artist smiled when asked about the reaction to "Sumiglia," her boundary-less new release from ECM Records.
"When I first started singing Sephardic songs and Mediterranean songs," she said, "I really didn't think they could ever be released in an album. Now I have done a few CDs, and they have all had very good reviews. So, like all musicians and artists, I hope that we will make many more."
Back on stage, Yannatou's reserve slowly transformed, especially as she moved into rhythmic music from Bulgaria, emotionally intense tunes from Italy, Spain and Corsica and a gripping Palestinian song. Although her physical manner and between-song comments remained composed, her vocal style expanded dramatically.
Her initial emphasis on cool-toned interpretations, enhanced by a sumptuous sound and a subtle vibrato, gradually transformed into a startlingly diverse repertoire of vocal techniques. In some numbers she employed "throat singing" - a technique in which deep throat tones are used to generate whistling overtones. For others, she flexed her sound to the point where she could produce a melodic line in octaves.
In the concert's last few pieces, she produced bird calls, yelps, squeals and growls with an intensity reminiscent of the late avant-garde singer Cathy Berberian, as she led her four-piece ensemble through electrifyingly contemporary sounding segments.
"I have always been fascinated with the different colors of the voice, the different ways of singing," said Yannatou, opening up conversationally, similar to how she opened up musically on stage. "And that, I think, is what attracted me to the different [styles of] music of the Mediterranean. Singing them becomes like a game, playing with the sounds and the words of different languages."
Yannatou still lives in Athens, where she was born. Although she devoted a few years to guitar lessons, her primary instrument has always been her voice.
"My sister," she said, "helped me get into a choir when I was very young - 7 years old... And she helped me to learn the second voice, taught me not to be confused by what the other singers were doing. And it turned out to be a very important experience for me - to learn music, to learn how to be with other persons, to share the experience."
She studied voice at the National Conservatory and the Workshop of Vocal Art in Athens, continuing with postgraduate study at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her professional career began - while she was still a student - with vocal contributions to the popular "Lillipoupoli" children's program on Greek National Radio 3 under the direction of composer Manos Hadjidakis.
Yannatou initially concentrated on contemporary Greek song and opera. Renaissance and Baroque music attracted her interest next, followed in the early '90s by a fascination with vocal techniques and free improvisation.
By the mid-'90s she had met and formed a creative alliance with the members of Primavera en Salonico, the group that has backed her for more than a decade and with whom she has recorded several albums with combined U.S. sales of about 10,000.
"I first met them," she said, "when I became interested in Sephardic songs from Saloniki... We started doing concerts and eventually, the songs of the Mediterranean came next."
"And now, suddenly," she adds with a smile, "it has been more than 10 years together."
Yannatou finished the Schoenberg Hall concert with more wide-open improvisations, her vocal excursions enhanced by the heroic accordion playing of the group's music director, Kostas Vomvolos; the multilayered percussion work of Kostas Theodorou, the string bass of Michalis Siganidis and the nay flute of Haris Lambrakis.
By this point it was fully apparent that Yannatou's quiet stage demeanor, like her calm, intimate conversational manner, represented only one facet of a complex personality. Rather than rely on superficial stagecraft, she employs her voice, her eyes and her inner intensity to mine a creative trove filled with emotional treasures.
"If you choose to do this kind of work," concluded Yannatou, "you have to have a basic love of music. And for me it is always the expression of the music, the feeling within the music, that has to come first. So, I can only hope that what I do, what I sing, is experienced as passionate, even if I don'tnecessarily seem that way when I am on stage."

Savina Yannatou & her Greek homies tour, take America by storm

Venue: Old Town School of Folk Music (Chicago IL)

Savina Yannatou is a singer from Greece who has background in classical (baroque/Renaissance era), folk music of Europe & the Middle East, and jazz/free improv. She and her band endeavor to unpretentiously weave all these strands together for a tapestry virtually [hyperbole alert!] unparalleled in modern music. Ms. Yannatou's vocal talents had the breadth of an unusually eclectic ethnomusicologist, the chops of Patty Waters, Diamanda Galas, Joan La Barbara, and (dare I say) Yoko Ono and - most importantly - the soul of someone who loves music in all (or at least most) of its myriad incarnations.

What a paragraph. But - and here's the amazing part - every word is true. Savina Yannatou & her band o' swells took to the stage of Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and for the most part WOWED the capacity crowd. I only use the "for the most part" qualifier not because of any shortcomings on the part of the performers, but in some of their renditions of songs from many lands featured an unfettered, free-form, free jazz, free improvisational freak-out segment seemed to nonplus the predominantly "folkie" crowd. (I mean, with the right kind of eyes, one could practically see the "question marks" appear over the heads of many audience members.) I rather found these sections quite exhilarating myself, but then, I still listen to free jazz & old-school punk rock. Anyway, Ms. SY sang story-songs from various regions of Sicily, Greece, Spain, Palestine, & Macedonia (among others) with astonishing technique and poised, almost serene ease. She sang lyrics like an angel, like a demon, like a forest spirit, like the wind through the cracks of an old house, and she made "sounds," glottal yelps, clicks, and that old crowd-pleaser, chording - that vocal technique the throat-singers of Mongolia where they sing two different chords at the same time, producing a fural, scary tone. Her band Primavera en Salonico - with one exception, the same on her latest, very fine ECM disc Sumiglia - were all aces, a bunch of hepcats from the folk and the jazz worlds of Greece. Especially impressive was the percussionist, who was surrounded by all manner of unusual, mostly round objects that resonate when struck or stroked, an array one might see (literally) surrounding Art Ensemble of Chicagoans Dom Moye and Roscoe Mitchell. At the risk of sounding the starry-eyed fanboy, this performance was the definition of Transcendent. Miss the rarified musicology of Ms. Savina & her homies at your peril.

Eine neue Griechische Göttin des Gesangs- Die Musikkritik überbietet sich seit Jahren, um schließlich doch vor dieser Stimme zu kapitulieren: „Savina sang like the angels. Like the nightingales. I have no words to describe it“...Savina Yannatou’s Stimme und Gestaltungskraft sind wirklich ein außerordentliches Geschenk.

A new Greek Goddess of Song - the music reviews outbid each other since years, just to finally surrender in the face of this voice: “Savina sang like the angels. Like the nightingales. I have no words to describe it.” … Savina Yannatou’s voice and her interpretive capacity truly are an extraordinary gift.

Multimediterranes Sangeswunder
Multi-Mediterranean singing wonder.

It’s a cliché, sure, but the greatest instrument really is the human voice. And, there’s no better evidence of that than Savina Yannatou, whose voice soars and swoops and rumbles and howls through “Terra Nostra”.

But don’t think that Yannatou is merely an “it’s a small world after all” folkie. Since Mediterranea, her style has morphed into a harder-edged, more daring -and much more exciting- avant-garde enterprise. ...Terra Nostra marks the beginning of a truly personal style in which her fusion is more than the sum of its parts. And it is Yannatou’s new willingness to push even more stylistic boundaries that make her an artist to watch.

The first surprise here is Savina Yannatou’s richly imaginative and deliciously eloquent voice, her coloristic range, her freshness, and affection for these traditional songs…. She brings intense beauty as well as intensity to the images these songs evoke…. Ms Yannatou expresses not only a sense of wonder and enchantment, but also where textures are delicately coloured, dynamic nuances scrupulously observed with radiant passion. The effect is glorious. ..The second surprise is the music provided by the group, Primavera en Salonico. This is music which is strong and purposeful in heightening the drama…

…Savina Yannatou's dark, sweet voice suggested the glimmer of the first star at dusk.

Diese ganz spezielle CD gehört zum faszinierendsten, was ich auf dem Gebiet der ethnisch bezogenen contemporary Folk Music je gehört habe.

This very special CD belongs to the most fascinating, which I have ever heard in the field of ethnic related contemporary folk music.

'Greek Goddess on a Mission' - Savina Yannatou is an amazingly versatile singer.

…Und sie begeisterte mit ihrer stimmlichen Brillanz ... Ein faszinierender Gesang der 'Griechischen Nachtigall', die die Zuhörer in ihren Bann zieht.

…And she enthused with her vocal brilliance… fascinating singing by the „Greek nightingale“, who pulls the audience into her spell.

...'Primavera en Salonico' ist zudem weit mehr als eine brave Begleitband; die Gruppe führt hörbar ein Eigenleben, setzt immer wieder Akzente... Gleichwohl gelingt es Yannatou immer wieder das Publikum mit ihrer Stimme in ihren Bann zu ziehen, zu verzaubern, wie in 'Schubho Lhaw Qolo', einer Hymne maronitischer Christen voll inbrünstiger Glaubenskraft, die im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes den Wenkenpark ergriff, oder auch in der dritten Zugabe 'Tres Hermanicas Eran'.

… Primavera en Salonico is besides much more than a well-behaved accompanying band; the group leads an audible own live, puts accents again and again. …Nonetheless does yannatou succeed again and again to bring the audience into her spell, to enchant it, like in 'Schubho Lhaw Qolo', a hymn of maronite Christians full of ardent faith, which in the true sense of the word seized the Wenkenpark, or also in the third encore 'Tres hermanicas eran'.

...Was die Griechin Savina Yannatou mit ihrer Stimme so alles anstellte war phänomenal. Sie zwitscherte wie ein Vogel, vibrierte wie ein Didgeridoo, flüsterte, kreischte, schrie - sie sang die Volkslieder aus verschiedenen Regionen rund ums Mittelmeer nicht nur, sie lebte sie regelrecht mit und tat dies dabei auf eine erstaunlich introvertierte Art und Weise, sehr zurückhaltend, wie für sich selbst singend. Ihr Auftritt hatte sehr intime, fast religiös anmutende Momente.

..It was phenomenal what the Greek Savina Yannatou managed to do with her voice. She twittered like a bird, vibrated like a didgeridoo, whispered, shrieked, squealed - she didn’t only sing the traditional songs from different regions of the Mediterranean, she lived them proper and did this in an astonishingly introvert way, very reserved, as if singing for herself. Her performance had very intimate, almost religiously seeming moments.

...Eine auf dem Label ECM erschienene (Titel: Terra Nostra) zeigt eine ausgesprochen erfrischende Wildheit bar jeder akademischen Strenge. Die Übergänge oder gar freiformatige Improvisationen scheinen nahtlos und aus einer begnadeten Spielfreude heraus zu erfolgen. Der 'Stimmen'- Auftritt der Band bestätigt diesen Eindruck auf begeisternde Weise. Subtil gelingt die Balance zwischen Singstimme und Instrumentengruppe. ...All die Triller, Krächzer, Schreie der Yannatou, die mit provozierender Beiläufigkeit als das 'Normalste' überhaupt geschehen. ...Die größte Selbstverständlichkeit aus vollkommen innerer Freiheit heraus - sie erst gibt dieser Musik ihre Subversion, ihre punkige Wildheit und Entdeckerlust...

An on the ECM label appearing CD (title: Terra Nostra) shows a distinctly refreshing wildness devoid of every academic strictness. The transitions or even free form improvisations seem to occur seamless and out of sheer joy of playing. The 'Voices (Festival)' appearance of the band confirmed this impression in a thrilling way. Subtly succeeds the balance between singing voice and instrument group. .. All those trills, croaks, screams of Savina Yannatou, which with provocative casualness are considered the most 'normal' thing. … The greatest naturalness out of complete inner freedom - it is this that gives the music its subversion, its punk wildness and joy in exploration.

Es gibt „Weltmusik“ als Behauptung. Und es gibt die gelebte, die, weil sie gelebt wird, es nicht nötig hat, sich lautstark mit dem Label „Multikulturell“ schön zu machen. Savina Yannatou, die Sängerin aus Athen, zählt zur löblichen zweiten Kategorie. ...Ihre Stimme aus unzerreißbarer Seide trägt im stockenden Sprechgesang ebenso wie im höchsten Aufschrei der Emotion. ... Volksmusik? Ja, aber ohne falsche Idyllik, ungeschminkt, aufrührerisch. ...und sie tut dies...ohne Konzessionen an’s Open-Air-Publikum. Fast unscheinbar steht sie vor den sechs Männern des Instrumentalensembles “Primavera en Salonico“, sagt ihre Stücke nur knapp an, vertraut allein der ungeheuren Stimmungsspannweite ihres Gesanges.

There is „world music“ as a claim. And there is the one that is lived, and which, because it is lived, doesn’t need to decorate itself loudly with the label “multi-cultural”. Savina Yannatou, the singer from Athens, belongs to the laudable second category. …Her voice of unbreakable silk thread carries just as much in faltering speak-singing as in the highest outcry of emotion. … Traditional music? Yes, but devoid of false idyll, unvarnished, rebellious. …and she does this without concessions to the open-air audience. Almost inconspicuously she stands in front of the six men of the instrumental ensemble “Primavera en Salonico”, scarcely introduces her pieces, trusts only the immense range of mood nuances of her singing.

...Die 'griechische Nachtigall' erwies sich als äußerst geschmeidige Vokalistin, die mit erstaunlichem Blickfeld und überlegter Reife den Bogen der frühen Vokalmusik über die Entwicklungen der mediterranen Anrainer und zurück nach Griechenland spannte. ...selten haben wir einen derart weiten musikalischen Horizont gesehen, in dem alles in einer Selbstverständlichkeit zusammenwächst, als sei dies nur die Rekonstruktion eines vor langer Zeit zersprungenen Gefässes. ...

The 'Greek nightingale' proved to be an utmost supple vocalist, who with amazing vision and well-considered maturity drew the bow from early vocal music over developments of the Mediterranean neighbors and back to Greece. …Rarely have we seen such a broad musical horizon, in which everything grows together with a naturalness, as if all of this were only the reconstruction of a long ago shattered vase.

The magical voice of Greek singer Savina Yannatou is in rare form in this live performance, which includes compelling versions of material included in previous studio albums. … Yannatou’s versatility is little short of astonishing as she adapts her voice - sweet and childlike in some cases, harsh and masculine in others … A stunning album, improving with each rehearing.

…This globe-trotting would mean nothing if it weren’t for Yannatou’s deep feel for the songs and her astonishing technique… Her unplugged ensemble, Primavera en Salonico, can moan, swing, or stampede (see 'Ballo sardo', with vocals half-way between Tuvan throat singing and Jew’s harp)…

…her voice has incredible intricacies of expression, myriad details of delivery that would sound rococo if they weren’t grounded on the very simple structures of the songs she sings. There is something birdlike in her quickness and precision and also in the overflowing generosity of her sound. … Part Bessie Smith, part Edith Piaf, part ornette Coleman, and part Janis Joplin, she is anything but 'quiet'. And yet, I think what she means about the quietness in her music. Like Billie Holiday (of whom Savina remarks, 'I think she is the best of us all'), she is a listening singer. … Yannatou carries us on a voyage into different musical dialects with varied textures and inscapes. In each song we hear her voice carefully feeling its way into a new idiom… Yannatou does not simply appropriate these different worlds into her own or wander through them like an aimless tourist. …'I try to stand in the atmosphere of those different voices'. Then she thinks for a moment and smiles, 'A language of languages - this is what I am trying to create.' …Listening to Yannatou, we hear her listening into the silence for the vanished voice of that Other. And in her recognition of the Other’s presence in every moment or detail of each song, we can too hear that silent voice singing just behind hers. We hear the voice she is listening for even as we listen to hers. We learn to listen.

Perhaps is the renewal of occidental music leading from the European periphery after all, from the slightly odd and up to now culturally only rarely conspicuous countries like Norway or Georgia or exactly Greece, a country we had written off when we saw the last tourist, dead drunk with Retsina, stumbling about performing the Sirtaki – but even such a person should straighten up, pour a bucket of cold water over his head and get big ears, if only the voice of Savina Yannatou would reach him, which can be cool and hard and in the next moment soft and supple, which imitates the fluttering of paper and the rolling of pebbles on the beach. Und who, we suspect, would be a great Carmen.

We were lucky, when we were wafted into this concert, and lucky was the Munich-based record company ECM, when it decided to present Savina Yannatou to an international audience. Lucky, finally, felt also the audience in Munich, so much that it wouldn’t stop clapping.

It was in 1994 that the singer Savina Yannatou from Athens and the arranger and multi-instrumentalist Kostas Vomvolos joined forces. In the band Primavera en Salonico one can find such exotic instruments as oud, tamboura, quanun, accordion, violin and nay; they are played by musicians who are no strangers to jazz , who are used to free improvisation, who are able to follow the singer to a “terra incognita” (which jazz still is to many).

Thus signalizes the album title “Terra Nostra” in different spheres the open dialogue between the singer and the instrumentalists, in five titles also a peaceful “clash” of two voices from completely different cultures (Yannatou and the Tunisian singer Lamia Bedioui), which successfully results in a uniform and integrated whole.

This debut on ECM gets into an event of special significance. Yannatou’s voice, tender and lithe, like a reed swaying in the wind, seems celestial. One can only agree with the view of for example critic Roberto Villarel, when he says that Savina sings like an angel or jubilates like a nightingale: “I can only say that she sings exactly as she wants, without technical or expressive limit. The dream voice. We must assume that the Greek singer has received a divine gift”. And Primavera en Salonico is here the perfect counterpart, with its improvisational maturity and the expressive instrumental freedom: jazz and beyond.