AHERUSIA - Arapi Sousta/Arab’s Dance (Volissos of Chios)

AHERUSIA, return with their 4th album, NOSTOS ~ An Answer (?), a collection of eleven traditional songs from all over Greece, rearranged by the band and sequenced in such a way, so as to create a didactic parable through a loosely pieced but still coherent storyline. The concept of emigration, the sensation of feeling nostalgic and homesick, but also the search of what exactly constitutes “homeland” for someone, what people love and wish to return to, (something that can be often irreverent to geographical bounds), is something that the band focuses on this album. There are myriads of reasons for people to leave their land and their families behind. Some are uprooted by war, others driven away by socio-political oppression or even persecution and there are also those who want to cast their lot on foreign lands, hoping that a relocation will either erase their past or offer them an opportune future. Some people cut all ties and never look back. Others choose to keep all the things that remind them of home close to their heart, as a talisman to keep them safe, in their journey into a brave new world. In many cases the very personal link that anchors them to their past, can become a heavy load, as it fills their hearts with nostalgia and the searing pain of homesickness. The songs follow the journey of their anonymous heroes, who put their lives in harm’s way, sometimes in the name of a higher ideal, but oftentimes just seared from their homes, in an effort to provide for their loved ones, who they miss fondly. One of them will die, cursed and resented by the love of his life who thinks he has forgotten her, while another, will return, despite all the obstacles that make his journey look like an odyssey. Who's coming back? What consists “home”? How strong can love be? All answers lie within the journey itself. NOTE: The chorus that can be heard throughout the album comprises of actors from the band’s artistic collective. The album itself was recorded live, with no keys or samples used and almost no editing at all, in a conscious effort to make it as straightforward and direct as possible. ABOUT THE SONG This instrumental dance is a special, organic dance that resembles heavy Αptalikos and Aegean Zeimbekikos. Its heavy, almost warlike melody and motif, recount an incident that occurred in Volissos, Chios, some years after the liberation of Crete from the Saracens, by Nikephoros Phokas. A noble Saracen captain and his entourage, journey to the castle of Volissos where a festival is ongoing. After much drinking and while dancing, he tries to flirt with the woman of the village’s head and that leads to a very literal dance of death, as the villagers brave close on him with ill intent. LINE UP Voreas Faethon ~ guitars, vocals Drakhon ~ guitars, vocals Demetrios ~ guitars, vocals Tho ~ basses, vocals Pandion~bagpipes & pipes Druidēs ~ battery Chaeronios ~ battery Aidhor ~ battery, vocals CHORAL PARTS Fotis Varthis, Drakhon, Voreas Faethon, Vicky Driva, Tzortzina Spanogianni, Melina Mastrantoni and Joanne David Lead guitars, solos and lead vocals performed by Voreas Faethon. Rhythm guitars performed by Drakhon. All basses performed by Tho. Battery performed by Chaeronios. LIVE RECORDING AND OVERDUBS AT «Manos Georgakopoulos' Coven» Studios (Zihnis & Aigiou 11527 00302155207971, 00306973279947) in June-July 2018, by Manos Georgakopoulos https://www.facebook.com/Lunatech-Sou... Orchestrated by Voreas Faethon Produced by Voreas Faethon Cover "Nostalgos" (wooden engraving), artist Fotis Varthis https://www.facebook.com/morgothf?fre... MIXED AND MASTERED BY Dimitris Douvras, Lunatech Sounds Studio.