Savina Yannatou / voice Floros Floridis / clarinet, bass clarinet Barry Guy / bass Ramón López / drums and tabla
We recorded this CD in May 2023 on the magical Greek island of Hydra in the Old Carpet Factory Studio. The title Kouartéto emanates from the cover image by the artist William Pownall who in the true spirit of Hydra has for many years been an important focus for visitors seeking original artistic creations. And so, in this spirit. The music on this CD reflects a multifaceted response to a multicultural and open understanding of how artists can work together.
From the liner notes by Marc Medwin:
Every project involving these four creative spirits, here residing under the umbrella-appellation “The Hydra Quartet,” is a gathering of fluidities, magical continua fixed in time even in passing. Barry Guy and Ramón López share documented histories similar to those of Savina Yannatou and Floros Floridis, performing and recording in duos brimming with the possibilities of seismic transcendence.
Like the dream images of the lullabies or the place names and boundary demarcations altering with the political tides, the music transports itself and its auditioners through and beyond cultural and chronological divides, building dunes and castles of those shifting sands we so often believe, not without reason, to comprise solid ground. The final piece captures the music’s entire emotive range, from Yannatou’s heartbreaking cries, then descending toward the fluty vibrato with which Floridis leads the whispered pitches, so reminiscent of the concluding moments of Beethoven’s final piano sonata, simply, gently but ineluctably toward silence.
REVIEWS
By SUSANNE MÜLLER, Jazz Podium , April 2025
YANNATOU/FLORIDIS/ GUY/LÓPEZ KOUARTÉTO
Ein zutiefst expressives Stück Musik legt uns dieses Quartett aus Savina Yannatou, voc, Floros Floridis, cl, bcl, Barry Guy, b, und Ramón López, dr, Tabla, vor. Es sind alles in der Improvisation wurzelnde Musi- ker:innen, die sich ad hoc ver- ständigen können und es bei dieser Studioaufnahme von der Insel Hydra auch einpräg- sam tun. Im Zentrum die Griechin Yannatou, die, vom Korsett der Worte und folglich ihrer Bedeutung befreit, raunt und ruft, während das Trio um sie Geräusch und gebundeneren Sound hintergründig anlegt – und dann auch alleine, ohne Stimmzusatz, weiterspinnt. Unter den 17 Tracks auch drei Traditionals aus Israel, Griechenland und Albanien. Die sind weniger umtriebig vor- getragen, sogar nachdenklich und mit harmonischem Gerüst ausgestattet. Spannend.
By Richard Butz in Jazz 'n' More April 2025
Kouartéto Savina Yannatou (voc), Floros Floridis (cl, bcl), Barry Guy (b), Ramón López (dr, tabla)
* * * * * Dieses von der Sängerin und den drei Musikern auf der griechischen Insel Hydra, so heissen auch die 13 Improvisationen, eingespielte Album gleicht, um ein passendes Bild zu finden, einem Stück gewobenen Tuchs. Alle vier wirken gleichzeitig daran mit, die Sängerin oft wortlos und ungestüm, aber auch mit einem ans Herz gehenden ruhig dahin fliessenden griechischen Wiegenlied oder mit einem eindringlich vorgetragenen hebräisch-griechischen Lied. Damit legt sie Zeugnis ab für die weitgehend durch die Nazis ausgelöschte jüdische Kultur ihres Heimatlandes. Bassist Barry Guy setzt seinen Bass mal kraftvoll und intervenierend aufspielend, mal sanft und melodisch improvisierend ein, während der vielseitige und innovative Drummer auf einem Stück mit der Tabla einen besonderen Akzent setzt. Der aus Thessaloniki stammende Klarinettist und Bassklarinettist Floros Floridis hat verschiedentlich mit deutschen Impro-Musikern zusammengespielt. Er glänzt mit seinem Spiel, das über alle Register seiner beiden Instrumente geht, abwechselnd anschwellend, schnörkelnd, schreiend und als Kontrast dazu mit innerlicher Intensität. Ein Meisterwerk von Interkultureller Impro-Musik!
By John Sharpe March 5, 2025
Savina Yannatou / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez / Floros Floridis: Kouarteto
Four seasoned improvisers unite to telling effect on Kouartéto. Their pedigrees go back a long way. Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou, English bassist Barry Guy and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez have been colleagues in Guy's Blue Shroud Band for the past 14 years, though Attikos (Maya, 2010) documenting bassist and singer in tandem at Amsterdam's esteemed Bimhuis predates that. Clarinetist Floros Floridis' association with the singer stretches back further still, not surprising as he has been at the forefront of the Greek free music scene for over four decades.
Although the four share an egalitarian outlook, the distinctive voice of Yannatou, whose name takes first place on the sleeve, proves the dominant feature. She appears on all but two of the 13 cuts, mixing silken songlike tones with a coarser guttural staccato, variously seeming to be conversing, raging, wheedling and serenading in an alien language. She feeds into exchanges that are often volatile in temperament, and dynamic in pacing, volume and a willingness to make abrupt detours. While bass and drums govern uncertain momentum, everyone shifts shape according to the prevailing weather.
Although the majority of the concise pieces showcase the whole combo, as the title implies, they ring the changes to offer different perspectives by also including four duos and three trios. On "Ydra 4," the responsive pairing of Guy and Floridis trades in squawky bass clarinet and dry flinty pizzicato, which ultimately turns reflective. On "Ydra 8," matching the reedman with Yannatou, the outcome veers towards the conspiratorial, as if secrets are swapped and scandalous tales told.
Further enriching the stew, on three occasions Yannatou draws on folk tunes. She spreads a Greek lullaby over pattering percussion and bass which alternates between plump glissandos and prickly twangs on "Ydra 6." A lovely intermingling of wavering arco and angelic voice resides at the heart of "Ydra 11," a soaring Greek-Hebrew lament, that is one of the high points of the album, while Floridis' clarinet curls tenderly around the syllables of the Albanian melody on the final "Ydra 13."
By encompassing both the honeyed glide and the astringent stutter, the quartet creates an alchemical amalgam that deepens the flavor of both.
