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Mathios Balabanis
Biographical Note
[1912-1987]. Self-taught musician, born in Istanbul. He played the goblet drum, the daouli (davul), and all the traditional percussion instruments.
He participated in the recordings of more than ten thousand songs, and took part in more than a thousand musical programs and events. He died in 1987.
Songs
Thessaly Magnesia, Keramidi Historical Song, National Legends and Laments
Amidst Three Seas
Ανάμεσα τρεις θάλασσες
Sporades Skiathos Ritual Song, Fable Song (Ballad)
Arta’s Βridge
A team of forty stonemasons and sixty prentice workers
were putting up a bridge across the river close by Arta.
The whole d...
Asia Minor Erythraea, Alatsata Couplets Love Song, Love Song
Ballos from Alatsata
Αλατσατιανός μπάλος
Start, sweet tongue of mine, and remember, my lips,
And you poor heart, tell what you know.
Of songs and commendations I ...
Constantinople Couplets Love Song
Farewell Holy One
Έχε γεια Παναγιά
In Galatá a shower falls, a downpour in Tatávla.
The loveliest of all the girls is she who's dressed in black.
It was nothi...
Macedonia Chalkidiki, Ierissos Ritual Song, Fable Song (Ballad)
Forty Five Craftsmen (Arta’s Βridge)
Σαράντα πέντε μάστοροι
Asia Minor Makri - Levissi Processional Tune | Couplets Love Song
I Come and You Are Asleep
I come and you are asleep amid the white jasmine,
wake up wherever you might live and be, my bushy lemon tree.
My partridge...
Eastern Aegean Lesvos Couplets Love Song
In Smyrna, in the Armenian Quarter
Στη Σμύρνη μες στην Αρμενιά
Propontis Marmara Love Song
Karsilamas dance from Marmara
May this Bállos last, last until morning
that the girls may dance with their mates!
Ah, my barber boy,
come, embrace my ne...
Thrace Couplets Love Song, Spring Song
May
Λεν ήρθι Μάης κι Άνοιξη
May's come,
May's come and spring,
summer’s come
when the perfumed roses bloom.
I've a white rose I want to dye
and if I...
Macedonia Chalkidiki, Ierissos Love Song, Wedding Song
My Love Is to Wed
Η αγάπη μου παντρεύεται
My love is to wed and marry my rival,
but it’s not that that pains me so,
it pains me that she's asked me to be their best ...
Asia Minor Smyrna Couplets Love Song
The Widow
Widow, change your name, don't let them call you widow,
for you make my eyes weep night and day.
But why don't tell us
the...
Asia Minor Erythraea, Meli Couplets Love Song, Wedding Song
The Young Meliots
Τα Μελιωτάκια
Two young Meliots got up to dance the syrtos,
they will ask us for songs and commendations.
Come, let us go over there and ...
Asia Minor Makri - Levissi Processional Tune | Couplets Love Song, Wedding Song
Wake up My Black Eyed One (The Grasses of the Earth)
Wake up my black eyed one I’ve come to your neighbourhood,
I have brought you a golden tress to plait your hair.
Your black...
Propontis Marmara Table Song | Couplets Party Song
Well Met
Καλώς ανταμωθήκαμε
Well met to all of us who love each other,
who are joyful for a while and of a glad heart.
Vré, off the beach
I’m chasing ...
Asia Minor Erythraea, Alatsata Couplets Love Song
Yatzilariani
I brought you a Good Evening, give me a Good Night
I had no business here, I came only for you.
Come out that I may see
yo...
Asia Minor Erythraea, Alatsata Couplets Love Song
Yioryitsa
I intended to love you, my Yioryítsa,
and nobody to know of it.
Now our own people learn of it, my Yioryítsa,
strangers to...
Albums
By the Flowering Oleander
Goblet drum
LP
Farewell Holy One
Daouli (davul),
Goblet drum
LP
Music from Greece: Domna Samiou
Goblet drum
CD
Perperouna
Daouli (davul),
Goblet drum
LP
Songs of Asia Minor 1
Goblet drum
LP
Songs of Asia Minor 2
Goblet drum
LP
Songs οf Asia Minor
Goblet drum
CD
Souravli - Greek Flutes and Pipes
Goblet drum
LP
Travelling in Greece with Domna Samiou
Goblet drum
LP
Concerts
1971-1973 Athens, Clubs Rodeo, Kyttaro and Rizes
The First Concerts
In 1971, in the midst of the military Junta period in Greece,...