Music: Dimitra Galani, Chrysostomos Mouratoglou, Jun Miyake

We got a first taste of their work through the release about two months ago of four songs from the section Allyos, which were released on a collectible CD single. All four songs were immediately loved and have since been played non-stop on the radio. Today, the two creators present their complete collaboration, now captured in a book-CD, an excellent release, against the heavy climate of the times we live in.

Thirteen songs resonate with the internal need for a restart, for re-examining things within and outside of us, thirteen songs all aligned with hope and with their gaze fixed on the open horizon. Thirteen songs that tell a story that invisibly runs through their sequence and arrangement. These songs could also serve as the soundtrack for a film. The plot is described by the first song on the album, immediately after the prologue: a woman alone wakes up from a violent nightmare and realizes her urgent need to restart her life differently, to pick up the thread of her world where it was interrupted. Looking back and measuring her past, she decides to look ahead and re-enter her life with others, differently. In reality, these songs narrate this journey, stopping in time and place and speaking symbolically, confronting the present of us all.

They say that collaborations are judged over the years, but in the case of Dimitra Galani and Paraskevas Karasoulos, it is a strong and proven relationship, a kinship that has given and continues to give fruitful and creative results. "Palirroia", "Fos", "Tha to metaniosis" and "An" are discographic references that not only were loved but also highlighted timeless songs - milestones in all our hearts.

Present and consistent in their artistic vision and values, the two creators meet several years later to capture their new discographic proposal titled "Allyos". They listen to the anxiety, the transience, the criticality of the times and with their songs urge us to see things "Differently". The lyrics of the songs are signed by Paraskevas Karasoulos. The music is by Dimitra Galani, Chrysostomos Mouratoglou, and in one song by the Japanese composer Jun Miyake.

Dimitra Galani composes four songs, Chrysostomos Mouratoglou three songs, while they co-sign the music for another five. This spirit of collaboration and collective responsibility in the artistic outcome is one of the new elements that this work brings to Greek discography.

Chrysostomos Mouratoglou, a long-time collaborator of Dimitra in recent years, is responsible here for the production and most of the arrangements of the album.

Joining the collaborators is a great and internationally recognized composer, Jun Miyake. The composer of 17 albums, with 11 awards (including those from the Cannes Festival and several film festivals), a close collaborator of Wim Wenders, Robert Wilson, Oliver Stone, Philippe Decouflé, and Pina Bausch, who composed the music for Wenders' wonderful tribute film to Pina Bausch, collaborates for the first time with Greek artists. In Allyos, Dimitra Galani will perform the most famous piece from the film Pina by Wim Wenders, "Lilies in the Valley" with lyrics by Paraskevas Karasoulos, produced and arranged by the composer himself.

The book accompanying the CD Allyos hosts, apart from the lyrics of the songs, 17 works by photographer Lila Sotiriou and painter Andreas Georgiadis, who worked together merging their arts into a unified and autonomous visual discourse, developing an original and moving dialogue with the material of the songs. The public can see the works of the two artists up close at the IANOS Art Hall where they will be exhibited from February 3 to March 1.

The graphic design of the release was handled by Stefania Charsoula. The book-CD that is released is a co-production of Mikri Arktos and North Knot.

Allyos has also begun its digital journey. The album is available on all digital platforms in 240 countries for purchase and streaming. You can search for it and acquire it immediately.