#4162: Savina Yannatou's 'Wandering Stories'
Hear Greek composer and vocalist Savina Yannatou and her project Wandering Stories- a collection of songs and stories from around the Mediterranean, as performed at the 2018 Ultima Contemporary Music Festival. Listen to some excerpts from the piece, and host John Schaefer’s interview with Savina Yannatou, recorded on location in Oslo, Norway.
Wandering Stories is based on testimonies from the refugees on Chíos and Greek islanders who spontaneously helped to accept refugees, ancient Greek fragments, field recordings and Norwegian writings. Conceived as a sequence of songs (and video animations in collaboration with filmmaker Kleopatra Korai), and refugee stories, woven together with folk music, improvisations, and Yannatou’s own arrangements; the work opened the 2018 Ultima Festival.
Yannatou “had the luxury” of an ensemble of musicians and singers from Greece, Tunisia and Norway, including vocalists Unni Løvlid and Lama Bediui, violinist Gjermund Larsen and Camille Norment on glass harmonica, achieving a blend of traditional Arabic, Scandinavian, and Mediterranean folk music, renaissance European music, and electronic sound design. She collected the interview materials herself, and edited them down musically, (rather than for pure documentary purposes), focused on the overarching goal of how to let the multiple voices, both singing and telling these stories, along with the sound design, and music draw attention to the pressing global challenge of refugees and migration.
Program #4162: with Savina Yannatou, live in Oslo, 2018 (First aired 10/16/2018)
ARTIST: Unni Løvlid, vocalist
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories: Anna [3:42]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories: Ovdovialla lisitchkata (Bulgarian) [1:55]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Lamia Bedioui, vocalist
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories: Arabic melody [7:54]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories, excerpt [8:28]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Lamia Bedioui, vocalist
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories: excerpt [Tunisian melody] [1:57]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Wandering Stories- Robert Johnson (17th C.), arr. Savina Yannatou: "Song of Ariel"[1:34]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Wandering Stories, "Folia", and improvisations [2:15]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Wandering Stories- Miranda Garland, arr. Savina Yannatou "Wild Are the Waves" [1:06]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
ARTIST: Savina Yannatou and Ensemble
WORK: Savina Yannatou's Wandering Stories, Conclusion
Dionyssis Savopoulos, arr. Savina Yannatou "The Garden", Draumkvedet (Norwegian), Arabic Lullaby [6:01]
RECORDING: Live, Ultima Fest 2018, Oslo
SOURCE: Mikkis Recording co., courtesy of ultima.no/en
INFO: savinayannatou.com
