Seikilo Ancient World Music – ‘Sacred Harmony’ Review

What does Seikilo Ancient World Music sound like?

Greek lyres and kitharas with vocalisations.

The review of ‘Sacred Harmony’ by Seikilo Ancient World Music

My path to discovering ‘Sacred Harmony’ was a long one. I stumbled across an Instagram advert for Luthieros, an organisation that specialises in ancient Greek instruments and music. From there, I found Seikilo Ancient World Music and its museum. It features interactive displays, live performances, musical tours, and a window into the music of Ancient Greece. One thing that Seikilo promote is their in-house musical recordings, and ‘Sacred Harmony’ is their most recent release. Thank you to social media for this one. It’s a gem.

Recorded over two weeks in Aegina Island, Greece, this is an ancient lyre, upright bass, and vocal trio. Thanasis Kleopas works a lyre and sings with pained passion in every note. The sombre ballad ‘Dayiaho’ is utterly heartbreaking, sounding like a lost campfire song from thousands of years ago. Theodoros Koumartzis provides a second ancient lyre, allowing the two lyres to mesh together closer to a kora than a harp. The way one lyre often takes an ethnic tonality, like in the waltzing intrigue of ‘Vacania’, makes the album sound global.

Lastly, Jordan Koumartzis provides an electric upright bass, which gives plenty of rhythmic structure underneath. The bass gets its time to shine in ‘The Foreign Lands of Love’, when, after a distant wind introduces the song, its first section is bass and vocal-led before the lyres join. The bass is bowed like a string for the final third, showing the versatility of the instrument. Elsewhere, ‘Evageras’ and ‘The Wolf’ are more mystical pieces. Using distant cries or whispers, the lyres are left to unveil curious melodies like shrouds. The closing track, ‘A Sufi’s Dream,’ is a heavy seven-minute finale. Both mystical and drone-like, it marches on like a trippy dream. Vocally, Thansis’s higher register is backed by a secondary lower hum and breathwork that makes the curious, ethnic-toned lyre riffs all the more mysterious.

I haven’t immersed myself in ancient Greek lyres much before, but ‘Sacred Harmony’ spoiled me rotten. This is a tightly woven, intricate web of plucked strings, bowed hair, and vocalisations from the heart. Whilst I can’t afford the £2,000+ to buy one of their handmade lyres or kitharas, I can be transported across time and space with this beautiful collection of songs. If you do ever get to go to Greece, you can find out about the Seikilo Museum and plan a visit. In the meantime, I’ll be diving into their discography to see what other gems await me.

Recommended track: Dayiaho

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