Mavrika

Mavrika deliver a fresh, contemporary and distinctly London take on rembetika, the music of the dispossessed Greek underground. The core of Mavrika are Katina Kangaris (voice) and Chris Morphitis (guitarist and producer). The album also features prolific jazz drummer Tom Skinner, who has performed with amongst others Ethiopian jazzman Mulatu Astatke. Chris is a respected multi-instrumentalist and producer. Production credits include Kenyan Mobo-nominated Owiny Sigoma Band (on Gilles Peterson's Brownwood) and he has performed with many others including Elmore Judd and Damon Albarn's Africa Express. Katina is a hugely versatile classically-trained singer: she has performed with physical theatre companies (DV8), contemporary opera including the ENO, as a pop singer songwriter releasing her EP Shine with the F-IRE Collective, with Elmore Judd, Scratch from The Roots, and UK Underground hip hop crew Task Force/Raw Dog. It's not surprising that the Greek economic crisis has brought with it a renewed interest in its culture and especially the music of the socially outcaste musicians, the rebetes. The London-born musicians began to explore their Greek roots inspired by Chris' dad's collection of 1920s rembetika, and quickly fell for the stories of drunk and stoned musicians in underground dens, women of ill-repute trailing the streets cigarette in hand, and police bust-ups in pre-war Athens. Virtuoso guitarist Chris took up the bouzouki and travelled to Greece.