Nowruz - Aionia Epistrofi (2023)

“Αιώνια Επιστροφή” (Aionia Epistrofi/Eternal Return) is the first full length concept album by Greek composer/oud player Lefteris Navrozidis. It features 12 tracks, 4 of them being instrumental and 3 of them with lyrics. It also includes 1 improvisation/taksim and 4 tracks of narration, the 3 of them conceived as a dialogue between logos and music.
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The album should be perceived as a continuum (concept album) which negotiates the reality of time in our lives, the chase of love, sacred though embodied, the sense of eternity in the experience of ecstasy, the nonlinear unfolding of our personal history through our emotional states, the reminder of the future inside the power of our yearnings, nostalgia for the moments we have not yet lived, pain inside joy, joy inside pain.
The sense of continuity is approached through the obeisance of the compositions to a stable modal tonal structure, from the first until the last piece, modulations being respectful to the modal mechanisms of major Eastern Music Traditions, such as Byzantine, Persian and Ottoman, which are combined under the fresh glance of the composer, in an innovative way. Western and contemporary music harmonic and aesthetic influences, influence of the popular Greek music traditions, like smyrneiko, can also be found, constituting the personal blend of the composer, not as an individual, but as a living cell of the commune.
Motives and melodies are repeating themselves while the album unfolds, in the same way faces, senses and narratives appear and disappear weaving our very personal life stories.

Lefteris Navrozidis – composition, lyrics, oud, vocals
Panormitis Boubas – violin, vocals
Sevi Vletsi – vocals
Periklis Vrachnos – viola
Dimitris Vletsis – qanun
Vagelis Vrachnos – contrabass
Christos Kalliontzidis – pontic lyra
Kiyarash Eshghi – tombak
Vasia Tsiaousi - narration

Tracklist:
1.01 - Nowruz - Metaxenio throisma tou anemou (4:24)
1.02 - Nowruz - Enthymesis (7:12)
1.03 - Nowruz - Huzzam taksim (1:59)
1.04 - Nowruz - Anamnesis (3:55)
1.05 - Nowruz - Tryfero throisma eisai mesa stin agriada sou (1:33)
1.06 - Nowruz - Fygokentros (6:04)
1.07 - Nowruz - Nostalgia (3:46)
1.08 - Nowruz - Aionia Epistrofi (3:32)
1.09 - Nowruz - Sterno Kalyvi (6:38)
1.10 - Nowruz - Peridinisi (6:23)
1.11 - Nowruz - Zoroastres (4:24)
1.12 - Nowruz - O mikros sofos (Dose mou mia goulia) (6:51)