Lyre was lost during the years of Dark Ages, and for many centuries remained just an image on pottery and statues. The wars and historic events were the main reason, along with several calamities that followed the fall of Alexander the Great. Some modern, brave luthiers, had the courage to re-invent this instrument, and today, especially during the last decade, lyre came back to life, after many years of research and experiment.
Aliki is one of the musicians that found the sound of the lyre being in fine attunement with her needs of expression, and since then, is participating in many projects.

We invite you to explore some of them....

Vassiliki & Aliki

Vassiliki Papageorgiou & Aliki Markantonatou
 
The blue chords of the Lyre
 
 
The Greek singer and lyrics writer Vassiliki Papageorgiou who for many years lives and creates in Istanbul meets Aliki Markantonatou from Greece with her ancient lyre in a space still rich in echoes of antique melodies and traditional songs.
Aliki draws her inspiration from ancient Greece as she composes music to lyrical poetry. She creates distinctive compositions that are played by both traditional and contemporary instruments while also interpreting genuine ancient Greek and Hellenistic period compositions that have come to us through time.
Vassiliki sings poems written by ancient Greek lyrical poets. She also sings traditional Greek and Turkish folk songs together with songs written by contemporary Turkish and Greek composers on her own lyrics.
 
The fusion of the ancient lyre sound blended with the voices becomes enhanced with the mandolin melodies played by Vassiliki. The minimal sounds of the accompanying percussion contribute an archaic simplicity to the performance. The songs unravel through the blue notes of the ancient lyre starting from ancient music and reaching out to traditional and contemporary compositions; from the «blues» to the «zeybek», from ancient Greek and modern Greek songs to melodies of Turkey, weaving in this way a rich embroidery so characteristic of the Aegean and the Anatolian hinterland. 
Aliki Markantonatou: ancient lyre, vocals
Vassiliki Papageorgiou: vocals, mandolin, percussion