Monsieur Doumani is without a doubt one of our most successful local bands. The three-member band will celebrate its latest award-winning success with a performance at the Cultural Centre of the University of Cyprus on Wednesday.
The band has been entertaining us since 2011, has just got back from a European tour, and focuses on rearranging Cypriot traditional songs by adding their own particular colour to their sound and feeling. The band members – Antonis Antoniou (tzouras), Angelos Ionas (guitar) and Demetris Yiasemides (wind instruments) – also compose their own songs in the Cypriot dialect, which are inspired by contemporary Cypriot society.
A success they will share with fans on Wednesday is that they were recently awarded with the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Records Critics’ Award) for their third album Angathin (Thorn). This is a prize presented for achievements in recorded music and involves “new releases of outstanding importance”. Criteria for evaluation are interpretation, artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation and sound quality. Only one release per category is selected. The jury of the awards consists of 156 members, most of them music critics, musicologists and specialised radio producers, who live and work in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The album Angathin, which was nominated in the World Music category not only won the prize but was added to the celebrated list, which contains the most important albums from around the world. Angathin, which consists almost exclusively of original compositions, was released last February and was in the Top ten of the Transglobal World Music Chart for three months, reaching the number one spot last April and the second spot this month. It is also currently at the top of the World Music Charts Europe and it was given the title of Top of the World album by British magazine Songlines.
The songs on the album are inspired, among other things, by the unstable political situation on our divided island and the need for peace and reunification, as well as environmental crimes committed in the name of economic growth and profit. Musically, the compositions, arrangements and lyrics have come from a place of experiment, while the harmonies and melodies reach new heights. This pretty much follows the same formula as their two previous albums – the 2013 release Grippy Grappa and the 2015 release Sikoses. All three albums are inspired by tradition but reflect our current social situation.
The band’s first major success came two years ago when it was nominated for Best Group at the Songlines Music Awards 2016.
Their live appearances at festivals and venues across Europe have been very well received by diverse audiences and their music has been presented on radio stations around the globe, such as the BBC, NPR, Radio France, Sveriges Radio, and PBS Melbourne.
After their performance back home on Wednesday, the band will set out to take Europe by storm once more when they participate in a number of important music festivals, such as Rudolstadt (Germany) and FMM Sines (Portugal).
Monsieur Doumani
Live performance by the local band. June 13. Cultural Centre of the University of Cyprus, Manor House on Axiotheas Street, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €5/10. Tel: 22-894531
