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Written in fRoots issue 343/344, 2012


OLUF DIMITRI RØE
Meltemi – Wind of Mykonos
Etnisk Musikklubb EM31 (2011)

His middle name hints that Oluf Dimitri Røe isn’t a usual Norwegian fiddler, bagpiper and singer. Born in Norway of Norwegian father and Greek mother, he grew up and studied music in both their countries. The two poles of his music are the sabouna (bagpipe) tradition of Mykonos and the fiddling of Trøndelag, but his involvements have been wider, working with such as Sámi joikers and Norwegian Roma musicians.
     For his debut solo album he focuses mainly on Mykonos, in company with a varied cast of musicians living in Norway and some leading Greek players, Greek-resident Armenian oudist Haig Yazdjian. The result, in music both traditional and his own, is full of the sounds of Mykonos – sabouna, drums, laouto, spirited singing – sometimes in traditional form, elsewhere contrasting with, for example, the accordions of Serbian Jovan Pavlovic and Norwegian Gabriel Fliflet or the joiking of Ingor Ante Ailu Gaup in trio with the voices of Røe and Kenyan Idd Aziz.
     It’s an interesting, varied, lively listen, pleasingly not neat, and not a meet-in-the-middle fusion; simply a musician who, like many, is the sum of the influences and attractions of a varied geographical and musical background, bringing in open-minded others to express his own personal tradition.
     www.emcd.no


© 2011 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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