Isokratisses - Cry With Tears: Greek-Albanian Songs Of Many Voices - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2022 . Isokratisses (Greek for Inchwomen who sing the InchisoInch or InchdroneInch) is a vocal ensemble comprised of eight women who carry the ancient tradition of polyphonic songs from Epirus a region in northern Greece and southern Albania. Born and reared in the Greek speaking villages around Deropoli and Politsani in Albania, the women of Isokratisses have sung these songs since childhood. The group ranges in age from 19 to 56 with some sisters in the group as well as an aunt. They were nurtured by this archaic music, listening and singing it with their family and friends. The songs were passed down from generation to generation. The group started it's artistic activity in 2015, after the singer Anna Katsi took the initiative to encourage the younger members to perform regularly. The communal nature of polyphonic singing is a way of revitalizing an art that has declined in recent years and to reassert the primacy of female voices in the southern Balkans. Singing these songs builds an invisible bridge that connects the present with the past, the memories of childhood travel with the immediacy of daily life.