The story begins 33 years ago, when Haris Alexiou records a song of exile for a BBC tribute. That tribute gives rise to the idea of a whole album on exactly this theme: \u201cTa Tragoudia tis Xenitias\u201d (\u201cSongs of Exile\u201d). The songs are chosen and recorded, and this would have been an album that could have been released in 1987.<\/p>\n
At that time, however, Haris Alexiou is working on, recording and releasing three albums: \u201cI Agapi Einai Zali\u201d (\u201cLove Is a Dizziness\u201d) at the end of 1986; in spring 1987 her collaboration with Manos Hadjidakis is captured on record and released as \u201cI Haris Alexiou se Aprovlepta Tragoudia\u201d (\u201cHaris Alexiou in Unexpected Songs\u201d); and in the same year Marios Tokas\u2019s \u201cLeoforos tis Agapis\u201d (\u201cAvenue of Love\u201d) comes out, with the legendary \u201cExartatai\u201d (\u201cIt Depends\u201d).<\/p>\n
So \u201cTa Tragoudia tis Xenitias\u201d stay in the drawer. And they stay there for thirty-three whole years. Until today. Until 2020, when, owing to circumstances, we all began rummaging through our drawers, our albums and our memories. That is more or less how it happened with this album too. As she has been sharing her photographs and memories on social media these past months, Haris Alexiou, opening her drawers, came across these recordings.<\/p>\n
A whole record (because in reality this is a vinyl record, simply adapted to the new era) was there, waiting. And so the time has come for \u201cTa Tragoudia tis Xenitias\u201d to make their journey.<\/p>\n
Ten songs that carry memory and soil are placed on the digital turntable. Legendary songs by Thodoros Derveniotis and Kostas Virvos, Stelios Kazantzidis and Eftichia Papagiannopoulou, Panagiotis Toundas, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Mikis Theodorakis and Dimitris Christodoulou, Manos Loizos and Fontas Ladis, Yannis Kiriazis and Dimitris Roumeliotis, Gerasimos Klouvatos and Charalambos Vasileiadis, Yannis Vasilopoulos and Pavlos Zemanidis, along with the traditional \u201cTzivaeri\u201d, go on air for the first time 33 years after the day they were recorded.<\/p>\n
10 songs that went into exile because of circumstance return home after three decades, in the voice of Haris Alexiou.<\/p>\n
The album \u201cTA TRAGOUDIA TIS XENITIAS\u201d is available on all digital stores and streaming services from MINOS EMI\/UNIVERSAL.<\/p>\n