Today, Third Man Records has released Cry With Tears: Greek-Albanian Songs of Many Voices, an album of Greek-Albanian polyphonic songs performed by the all-female vocal ensemble Isokratisses. Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer, musicologist, archivist, and author Christopher C. King (Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music), the landmark collection's release is heralded by "Five Months Married,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. Find the black vinyl LP online or in your local record store. Find the limited edition maroon vinyl at TMR storefronts and select indie record stores. 

LISTEN TO CRY WITH TEARS: GREEK-ALBANIAN

SONGS OF MANY VOICES

Isokratisses – Greek for “women who sing the iso” (or drone) – is a vocal ensemble of eight women who carry on the ancient tradition of polyphonic songs from Epirus, a region in northern Greece and southern Albania. Born and reared in the Greek-speaking villages around Deropoli and Politsani in Albania, the women of Isokratisses have sung these songs since childhood. The members of Isokratisses were nurtured by this archaic music, listening to and singing songs passed down from generation to generation with their family and friends. 

Cry With Tears: Greek-Albanian Songs of Many Voices celebrates the communal nature of polyphonic singing, reasserting the primacy of female voices in the southern Balkans while revitalizing the art. Isokratisses singing these songs builds an invisible bridge that connects the present with the past, memories of childhood merging with the immediacy of daily life. The polyphonic songs of Epirus are part of an ancient oral tradition, social music that has long been woven into the fabric of poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities. Many of the songs are variations of mirologia – songs of fate, songs of mourning – that were once sung throughout the southern Balkans but have largely disappeared except for Epirus. Structurally, the songs on Cry With Tears are pentatonic – that is, five notes with no semitones – and are composed of three or four distinct melodic voices that weave together in an organic yet unexpected way. The remaining members of the group provide the iso – or “drone” – that serves as the low tonic note of the melody.

The members of Isokratisses meet often in different places to celebrate this unique musical language, including a 2019 collaboration with Christopher C. King at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Holland – the group’s first-ever performance together outside of the borders of Greece (streaming in its entirety HERE). Isokratisses has already completed several rare North American performances marking the release of Cry With Tears, including at the Richmond, VA Folk Festival and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The group will perform again tomorrow at the University of Delaware School of Music. Other dates/locations will be announced on the group’s social media.