Xylouris White

Xylouris White is a duo comprised of Cretan singer and laouto player (longnecked lute) <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Giorgis Xylouris</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1QUsHFoDqNsC0W9AlNyHWF">Dirty Three</a> drummer <a href="spotify:artist:2e5Czu1HGML44EmIuNsA4o">Jim White</a>. Their music more often than not uses various millennia-old Greek folk traditions to explore free improvisation, and acoustic avant-rock. Goats, their 2014 debut won accolades from the indie press for the duo's cannny use of improvisation. 2016's Black Pearl and 2018's Mother threaded more formal folk structures through their invention. 2019's The Sisypheans explored the concept of repetition as it existed in Greek music for centuries. 2023's The Forest In Me was cut and completed on separate continents due to the pandemic.

The pair met while <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> was living in Melbourne and they stayed in touch. They got their first chance to perform together at the <a href="spotify:artist:1RM5gp0RFfjpJhCYFPB30p">Nick Cave</a>-curated ATP Festival backing the laouto player's famous father <a href="spotify:artist:5LKaE0VWiqPTwXWQCIp5wA">Psarantonis</a>, a nationally beloved singer and lyra player. Their debut album, 2014's Goats, engineered by <a href="spotify:artist:62sC6lUEWRjbFqXpMmOk4G">Fugazi</a>'s Guy Picciotto, contained a composition by <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a>' father, titled "Psarandonis Syrto." The feel of the album was one of free yet melodic improvisation. Later recordings, including 2016's Black Pearl, and 2018's Mother, were more spacious than their predecessor in that they closely examined traditional song forms and utilized the grainy physicality in <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a>' voice. Mother explored the seam where drones and conventional Cretan and Greek melodies are born.

Despite his father, <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> is well-known in Greece on his own merit. The laouto player is the leader of the Xylouris Ensemble; the rest of the lineup includes his three sons. Their concerts can last up to 18 hours. In addition to being an on-call session and live player and giving his own concerts, he is a highly regarded teacher.

His musical lineage can be readily traced to many previous generations. His father's brother Nikos, a singer and composer, is nicknamed "The Archangel of Greece," not only for his music but also for his part in bringing down the country's military junta in the 1970s. The <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> clan is the subject of Angeliki Aristomenopoulou's 2014 documentary film A Family Affair.

<a href="spotify:artist:2e5Czu1HGML44EmIuNsA4o">White</a> is a native Australian who established himself with <a href="spotify:artist:5zbvjds3ruj0MbjSREiagg">D3</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:4jR2COP71n37vZ0lo2yE4X">Tren Brothers</a> with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:359UWXqr5lah78ffWrQz8f">Mick Turner</a>. He has also recorded and performed with everyone from <a href="spotify:artist:6G7OerKc3eBO9sVkRNopFC">Cat Power</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2EEw2tt8AJcH9qXUeB96Oc">Will Oldham</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:12VaqyEhgwDRuFfEqbnrpz">PJ Harvey</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1RM5gp0RFfjpJhCYFPB30p">Cave</a>. His signature drumming style is fluid and cannot be categorized as being from any specific musical genre, though he's played most of the Western ones. The pair's debut album, Goats, was produced by <a href="spotify:artist:62sC6lUEWRjbFqXpMmOk4G">Fugazi</a>'s Guy Picciotto and released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Other+Music+Recording+Company%22">Other Music Recording Company</a> in October of 2014. After a widely acclaimed global tour, the pair returned to the recording studio in early 2016. They emerged with the more improvisational Black Peak, released in the fall by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Bella+Union%22">Bella Union</a>. After almost constant touring across the globe for 15 months, the duo emerged in January of 2018 with Mother, their third album. <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> described it as "...the extension of Goats and Black Peak in that it offered more intimate yet visceral compositions and improvisations from the signature but indefinable space they created between Cretan folk song and free improvisation." Their fourth installment, The Sisypheans, was titled for their chosen music's hypnotic repetition. It was inspired by the Cretan's sense of the eternal recurrence of themes and techniques. The set was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> in the fall of 2019.

During the same season, <a href="spotify:artist:2e5Czu1HGML44EmIuNsA4o">White</a> was in Picciotto's basement studio laying down drum demos and sketches, with no set goal. The pair sent some to <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> who dubbed on his lyra and lauto. They kept at it informally until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world in March 2020. It dictated that they continue working in this way. <a href="spotify:artist:3RKNOmSQW3K67Pm9o7ZbuE">Xylouris</a> discerned that there was a certain solitude loneliness about it, from inside as well as from the album title they'd chosen, The Forest in Me. The duo drew inspiration from the root sound they created and focused the rest of their recording project on following that particular Muse. The Forest In Me was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> in April 2023. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi