YIANNIS GLEZOS

Raise a glass to Glezos! This marvellous album of stunning Athenian grace and beauty is cause for celebration. The Roses of Pieria has all the opulence and splendor of a glimmering Greek marble temple at sunset. It's an instrumental re-recording of the original album of lyrical ancient Greek poetry from seven years earlier in 2006, only sounding sooooo much better here than the original. This is the greatest sequel since The Godfather Part II first hit our screens, but without an epic bloodbath at the end. If you go barmy over bouzoukis and have a passion for panduras, then you'll surely love the seven traditional Greek folk albums that preceded this one. All of the lyrics are in Yiannis Glazos' native Greek language, but that only adds to their Grecian charm - although It never did Demis Roussos' career any harm to sing in a "foreign" language, even when those foreign languages happened to be French and German. This strikingly beautiful album is the most authentic Greek experience I've had since fire station chief Nick (don't call him "Zorba"!) Georgiadis attended a Greek wedding in ITV's London's Burning series, where a smashing time was had by all with the crockery at the post-prandial knees-up during the reception. The Roses of Pieria is absolutely awash with cinematic Vangelis-inspired keyboard motifs and dazzling guitar glissandos, combined with glorious sweeping strings and heavenly choirs. This towering Hellenic masterpiece of shimmering beauty is as close as you'll ever get to Heaven on Earth, and no, I'm not referring to the similarly-titled YES album. Glezos blazes a trail through the progosphere on Greek chariots of fire, and just when you think the album couldn't possibly get any better, along comes the rousing and anthemic grand finale, "The Stars", where a huge choir sings along in unison, sending you soaring way up high into the stratosphere on an ecstatic wave of euphoria, and where you can almost touch the face of the Greek prog gods on Mount Olympus. In summary then, even if you're not generally a fan of Greek prog and you don't know your taramasalata from your moussaka, The Roses of Pieria has the kind of universal timeless appeal that will last for generations - just like the beautiful Acropolis of Athens.