''Psychostasia'' is the third studio album by the Greek musical group

Daemonia Nymphe Daemonia Nymphe (''Δαιμόνια Νύμφη'') is a Greek music band established in 1994 by Spyros Giasafakis and Evi Stergiou. The band's music is modeled after Ancient Greek music and is often categorized as neoclassical or neofolk. Daemon ...

, released on 10 May 2013 by the record label

Prikosnovénie Prikosnovénie (russian: Прикоснове́ние) is a French independent record label founded in Nantes in 1990 by Frédéric Chaplain and Sabine Adélaïde who moved to its current home in the medieval city of Clisson in 2001. Prikosnov� ...

Background and recording

The album is themed around the

weighing of souls The weighing of souls ( grc, psychostasia) is a religious motif in which a person's life is assessed by weighing their soul (or some other part of them) immediately before or after death in order to judge their fate. This motif is most commonly ...

, a concept known from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

sources as ''psychostasia''. It was recorded from 2008 to 2013 at Slaughterback Studio in London, the Sonic Ark studio in Thessaloniki and Studio 5 in Athens. The three additional tracks for the 2018 re-release were recorded in 2018 at Studio 5 in Athens and Slaughterback studio in London.

Release and performances

''Psychostasia'' was released 10 May 2013 by the French record label

. It formed the basis for the music-theatre show ''Psychostasia: The Performance'', created by Daemonia Nymphe in collaboration with the Theatre Lab Company in London. On 22 November 2018, the album was re-released on digital platforms with three additional tracks.

Reception

Mákis Milátos of ''

Athens Voice ''Athens Voice'' is a media company that includes the printed Athens Voice paper, the digital publication athensvoice.gr, the radio station Athens Voice Radio 102,5 and Athens Voice Books. Overview The Athens Voice paper is a free press weekly ...

'' called the album "very interesting, personal" and wrote that it reminded him of "the form, aesthetics and atmosphere of Dead Can Dance". He called it "a credible album where the duo clearly are found to have improved on all points compared to their previous record". Giórgos S. Koulouváris of ''Clickatlife'' referenced

Yann Tiersen Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French Breton musician and composer. His musical career is split between studio recordings, music collaborations and film soundtracks songwriting. His music incorporates a large variety of classical and c ...

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

and Dead Can Dance when he described individual tracks. He described the overall sound as a "natural continuation" for the duo with the theme of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

intact. Koulouváris wrote that there has been a "steady upward trend" for the band over the 15 years since its first release, although it has remained more successful abroad than in Greece. Filip Van Muylem of ''Peek-A-Boo Magazine'' also mentioned Dead Can Dance, a reference point he especially found in the tracks "Nemesis Rhamnesia", "Thracian Gaia" and "Nature Metamorphosis". He called the album "top quality" and "a great piece of art". Reviewing the expanded edition in 2019, Tom Plovie of ''Peek-A-Boo Magazine'' wrote that "the new songs fit nicely with the first release".

Track listing

Personnel

Daemonia Nymphe * Spyros Giasafakis - vocals, 'ancient' Greek lyra, kitharis ('ancient'

kithara The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymologic ...

), 'ancient' Greek

pandoura The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, seistro, keras, askaulos (bag-pipes), recorder, cymbals * Evi Stergiou - vocals, classical guitar, 'ancient' Greek pandoura, 'ancient' Greek lyra, percussion, seistro Guest musicians *

Dimitra Galani Dimitra Galani ( el, Δήμητρα Γαλανή) is a Greek singer and songwriter. Galani was born 1952 in Athens and began her musical career at the age of 16 providing vocals on several tracks of Dimos Moutsis and Nikos Gatsos on the album "A ...

- vocals on track 6 * Dessislava Stefanova - vocals on tracks 2, 3 and 6 * Victoria Couper - vocals on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13 * Rey Yusuf - vocals on tracks 12 and 13 * Kalina Koleva - vocals on tracks 2, 3, 4 and 6 * Vaggelis Paschalides - santouri (

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

) on tracks 2, 4, 5, 9 and

darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet- ...

on 2 and 3 * Peter Ulrich - darbuka and maracas on track 9 * Peter Jaques - clarinet on track 9 * Luka Aubri - slideridoo on track 7 * Chris Brice - drums on tracks 2 and 4 * Christiano Castellitto -

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

on track 7 * Dimitris Kotsikas -

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

on track 9 * Chorus vocals on "Psychostasia": Eleni Sfertsiori, Nikos Katsaros, Euforia Leventi, Christodoulos Papastathis, Georgia Kiskou, Nota Kaltsani and Aphrodite Toplaki (Taiteria) * Maria Stergiou - viola on tracks 3, 4 and 5 * Orestis Giasafakis - vocals on track 4 * Bernard Burns -

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

ending phrase on track 7

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Daemonia Nymphe albums Classical mythology in popular culture