Album: Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis, Greekadelia (Proper)

Nice to find something upbeat coming out of Greece, though that's not the first word this charming CD calls to mind.

"Reinvented folk" is how these young musicians like to describe their art, but with its ancient vocal undertones their down-home reinvention goes back to the music's source. They set urban demotika, sailors' songs and village sagas to traditional Greek lauto, an Indian harmonium and frame drums, which they soup up with the aid of live looping.