mikis

musicians:
Mikis Theodorakis (vocals)
Michael Kiedaisch (vibes, marimba, perc)
Jens Naumilkat (Cello)
Henning Schmiedt (p)
Volker Schlott (flute, sax)
Thanassis Sotos (backing vocals)

recorded November 1996
at Tonstudio Funk, Berlin
mixed March 1997
Bauer Studios Ludwigsburg
by Johannes Wohlleben, Wolfgang Loos,
Mastering with 20bit technology and Sonic Turbo Bit Mapping

PM 50081
Peregrina
distributed by in-akustik
D-79282 Ballrechten-Dottingen

tracks:
01. Strefi 3:09
02. Enchanted Night 4:22
03. The Bread Is On The Table 3:24
04. Bear 3:28
05. Lament 3:25
06. I Open The Door At Nightfall 3:26
07. The Tickets 3:31
08. The Pendulum 2:41
09. Day Breaks 4:49
10. Silver Cigarette-Case 2:43
11. Snow Falls In The Night 5:54
12. Tonight My Sheets Wept 4:14
sung in greek

compositions:
Mikis Theodorakis
arrangements:
Jens Naumilkat
lyrics:
Lefteris Papadopoulos (1,7)
Jannis Theodorakis (2)
Iakovos Kambanelis (3)
Mikis Theodorakis (4)
Georgia Delijanni-Athanassiadi (5)
Tasos Livaditis (6)
Nikos Gatsos (8)
Kostas Tripolitis (9)
Michalis Ganas (10)
Nazim Hikmet (11)
Angeliki Eleftheriou (12)

words:
Mikis is a man of extremes, one way or other, which is why he is completely himself. Mikis knows everything about himself and if you put together all the things he has told different people, then he has said everything about himself as well. You can't take everything from a naked man ... A good ending in fact for a text about someone who likes cigars, the sea, dogs, swans, jeans and Alberta the boat, and who has written music for over a thousand songs.

Many others may have sung his songs - famous names such as Bithikotsis, Farantouri, Kazantzidis, Linda - but when the master himself does so, it has nothing more to do with "song", or "art", but simply with Mikis alone. Suddenly you hear the message, fragmentary and elemental. Suddenly you learn that the song has a "history". That in the beginning was the word.
Thousands of people know songs by Mikis. This or that young woman would swim far out to sea, at night, during the dictatorship in Greece, and sing these songs out loud in the darkness. Others once discovered old records under their parents' marriage bed in the bedroom that was not locked for once and listened to Mikis' songs the whole night long, secretly, without their father knowing, in a town in Australia, and secretly, dozen of times since.

What brings Mikis close to many people is a life spent having for fend for himself. Nowhere in the world is there ever anyone who holds out his hand. You go abroad, out into the night, or into the internet, into the apartment, pick up the receiver and say: It's me. And that's how Mikis starts every 'phone-call: O Mikis ime. Short and to the point. And so is this CD: Miks.

Ina und Asteris Kutulas