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Comment by maremmano | Hacker News Reader

Every year, for about 10 years, I have spent a month's holiday in Greece, in the Cyclades, in Crete.

Visiting Greece, especially the more remote regions, is an experience that I recommend to everyone.

It is a journey into the past that only some regions of the world can still offer.

There are places in the Peloponnese where you can really breathe in the history. Lately I've been very interested in ancient (and not so ancient) Greek music.

It's not easy to find really original sounds (not heavy modernization) so this post is really welcome.

Thank you

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Would you mind giving some additional recommendations? I found the music in this link captivating. I would love to hear more of these original sounds.

Not op, but my main recommendation would be to visit greek in spring or autumn and not in summer, unless you really like it hot. Spring can be more wet, so late autumn, when most of the tourists are gone, but while it is still warm enough, would be my recommendation.

And Daemonia Nymphe for example would a greek band, that tries to reproduce the spirit of ancient greek music (not 1:1 reconstruction, but with authentic instruments).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemonia_Nymphe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRxEXasEDj8

And I also can recommend crete. I camped wild next to an old temples there, which was otherwise occupied by goats. Interesting experience.

Great band recommendation, thank you! From a fellow Cretan

Check out some Armenian music. We have a lot of practioners of the duduk for example which goes back 1500-2000 years.

https://youtu.be/E2q5PZqqZek?si=nV-_ESM3BT4dDTzK

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z2KglJSZGZE&pp=ygUWYW5jaWVudCB...

That first video by Canberk Ulaş is a revelation. Wow. The music is as good as it gets. Albioni's music is sensational, and Canberk Ulaş plays with both artistic and technical mastery. The wind player in me freaks out seeing his cheeks blown out to cartoony proportions, which as I understand may be considered good form, but still.

Its got a really unique harrowing sound. Heres some more if you like that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PluzIW9LKSE&list=OLAK5uy_kqaRp...

Wow. The glissandos are chill-inducing.

[not OP] On Naxos, in the summer the DOMUS Festival has traditional (not ancient, but traditional) Greek music: https://www.facebook.com/p/DOMUS-Festival-100066336529833/

The performances are great, the venue (a courtyard of the Venetian castle) is cool, and the host is warm and welcoming — we had a really good experience.

Also, in Athens, outside the Roman Forum site, the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments is really great, sometimes has performances, and the restaurants on that street are frequented by bouzouki players as well.

If you go to an island like Paros and venture into small towns away from the tourist centers like Parikia and Naoussa, you will not only walk on ancient Byzantine roads but stumble upon a lot of traditional gatherings. Not quite platonic or Aristotelian, but still different enough from most western musical geometry.

It's true for most countries tbh, mass tourism became the norm but step out of it and you're in for an amazing time, even in your own country

Just remember that you are still a tourist in these places and be extra respectful!

Shhh and don't tell anyone about mainland Greece yet to be disturbed by tourism even though it has always been very easily accessible

Crete is not part of Cyclades

There's a more charitable reading that you should probably give them given how much time they have spent in the region! It's a list of three distinct places: mainland Greece, the Cyclades, Crete.

Did you read over some of the punctuation? I did not read Cyclades as being part of Crete as written

It's subtle, as a non native english speaker I read it as a "zoom" too.

The the author is at fault for one's own misunderstanding? That's pretty egregious on it's own reading.

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