(Villages of Lefkimmi, Kritika, Paleohori, Neohori, Dragontina, Spartera)

Kostas Petridis: lute, voice
Christos Zahos: lute, mandolin, voice
Kostas Kostoulas: violin

Lefkimmi, always had a special local history and life style, tightly linked with agriculture, the sea and travelling. Its music tradition stands right next to the main body of Greek songs and has influenced all of South Corfu, the old Lefkimmi province and Paxos.

The music tradition of this part of Corfu Island always had distinct differences to the music of the rest of Corfu. The reasons for these differences were mainly social: a) The majority of working population were sailors, who travelled all over Greece and especially in Peloponnisos, Epiros, mainland Greece and Istanbul b) Epiros being neighboring land presenting farming and commercial employment opportunities; farm workers especially women would also travel to Paxos to pick olives during the winter, c) populations from other parts of Greece since the Ottoman occupation times would move to Lefkimmi and Paxos (mainly from Souli area, Peloponissos, Crete).

All these comings and goings of populations contributed to the special music idiom of the area enriched also by western music influences. In many of the pieces performed for us on the 13th of August audience will be able to recognize western music roads mixed up with byzantine ones.

Our audience will enjoy listening to old, forgotten tunes along with songs well known to us even today, melodies on the violin and the lute of exceptional fines and often of virtuosity performed in accuracy and much love by our musicians as a result of many years of research that resulted in a invaluable album recording.