THE REBETIKO DIASPORA

Amerika

Born in Greece in the 1920s, rebétiko is the fruit of a double migratory current: the exodus of rural populations to the large towns – to Athens in particular – and the return to the homeland of the Greek diaspora from Asia Minor, during the Turkish war for independence.

The musicians, the rebétès, powerfully sing of the common people’s suffering as well as their desires. Astonishingly diverse in its influences and modes of expression, the rebétiko finds its preferred instruments in the voice, the lute and the guitar.

Dimitris Mystakidis has immersed himself in the melting pot of this hybrid music since childhood. He developed a very personal style while seeking to return to the source. In his latest creation, Amerika, he retraces a particular stage in Greek history: exile to the US. 

In doing so he has mixed musical inventiveness and video, his own songs and those of the Greek immigrants, which were composed at the beginning of the twentieth century. He has also given life to an original style of guitar, called tsibiti, inspired by Afro-American bluesmen who were the first rebétès of the new continent.

Dimitris Mystakidis : voice and guitar

Ifigeneia Ioannou : voice

The documentary movie Voies du Rebétiko (2003, 52', vo-stfr) is shown in the same concert-hall at 6.30 pm. Single fee of CHF 5.

Download the Concert program Notes