Monsieur Doumani – Pissourin
Glitterbeat Records – 10 September 2021
Despite their singular name, Monsieur Doumani are a trio. Hailing from Cyprus, they have been impressing audiences worldwide for the last ten years or so, with music strongly rooted in the Mediterranean. For eight years and three albums, their music has been largely acoustic, but it seems that a change of guitarist in 2019 presented the opportunity to recharge batteries and take the music in a new direction. And what a welcome change of direction it is!
Monsieur Doumani features Antonis Antoniou on the Tsouras (a cross between the Greek Bouzouki and the Turkish Coura), which has now been electrified to expand its range. Andys Skordis is the new guitarist who, while contributing fluid and expressive lines, fulfils a major rhythm function in the sound, using the guitar as a drum and a bass. Demetris Yiasemides provide additional bass duties on Trombone. While that may sound like an unusual lineup for a three-piece, Monsieur Doumani have now begun to use synthesizers, effects and loop pedals to venture into a world that is refreshing and exciting. Antonis says that “…We already knew we wanted to explore sonic territories and we spent a lot of time experimenting to make the instrumental textures intertwine in a very dynamic way, some surreal, some psychedelic.”
‘Pissourin’ is described as a concept “… that began in the place between sleep and dream and waking.” The album’s title is a Cypriot word that means total darkness, and while that might lead you to think that you will be listening to dark, moody synth washes, that could not be further from the truth. Instead, the music and song of Pissourin is lively. It retains an essentially Mediterranean folk feel but is energetic and retains space in the music amid the complex rhythms and melodic themes.
Throughout the album, I found myself continually surprised at the way the sound of the trombone really anchors the sound of Monsieur Doumani. The title track has a bassline that is, at times, slow and monotonic and, at others, has the quality of a machine gun that must be fiendishly difficult to play.
The album opens to ‘Tiritichtas’, an otherworldly mix that invites you to dance with its driving trombone bass, energetic guitar weaving among the Tsouras and a sound rather like a Theremin. There is a dash of humour in the heavily effected scat singing that calls to mind the mouth music often used by Quebecois singers. Likewise, the dynamic pulsing bass and looped percussion from guitar and stompboxes of ‘Poulia’ is a crowd-pleaser that is sure to set festival-goers positively jumping. It has a tempo that builds to a final crescendo and a percussive finish. This will be a real tour de force if they can recreate it live.
‘Alavrostishiotis’ offers a chance for Andys Skordis to step forward on guitar and lay down some sounds that, for me, have a distinctly hypnotic West African feel to them, one I’m sure Robert Plant and Justin Adams would love. There is a progressive rock feel to ‘Astrahan’ and still more variety when you listen to ‘KalikanDJari’ with vocals right to the fore in a true rap style underpinned by a more sparse accompaniment.
With Pissourin, Monsieur Doumani have taken the intriguing traditional sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean and merged them with the contemporary. The results are thoroughly enthralling and entertaining.
Photo Credit: Michalis Demetriades