Album Notes

“Orion”, the new CD that Stelios Petrakis has been working on for the past two years, has been released. The CD contains six works by Petrakis with lyrics by Mitsos Stavrakakis and Yannis Petrakis. The cast of participating musicians is almost a “superproduction” for this type of music, including top Cretan singers Giorgis Xylouris and Vassilis Stavrakakis, Maria Simoglou, who also appeared on Petrakis’ last CD “Kismet”, as well as internationally-acclaimed musicians from different traditions such as:

Bijan Chemirani and Hammidreza Khabazzi (zarb and tar - Persia), Efren Lopez (viellaroue - Spain), Kevin Seddiki (guitar - France), Georgi Petrov (gadulka - Bulgaria), and exceptional colleagues and friends Giorgis Makris (bagpipes), Giorgos Kaloudis (cello), Kostas Meretakis and Panagiotis Katsikiotis (daouli), Haris Lambrakis (ney) and Michalis Kalkanis (acoustic bass).

Finally, the technical work and processing of the CD - which was created in Crete from start to finish and is the first to be recorded in Stelios Petrakis’ new studio in Mohlos (Mohlos Studio), was carried out by the famous Italian sound engineer Silvio Soave, who travelled to Crete specially for this purpose.