Once Upon A Time: The Xylouris Musical Tradition Lives On

On 12 February 2025 a trio of young folk musicians hailing originally from the rugged mountains of Crete performed at the Factory Floor theatre complex in Marrickville in the inner-west of Sydney.  For the audience, it was a chance to savour the sounds of the latest generation of artists and musicians descended from Cretan musical royalty.

The trio are Nikos, Adonis and Apollonia Xylouris, performing as Xylourides.

Their grandfather is the renowned Cretan musician Psarantonis (Antonis Xylouris), the younger brother of the late but immortal Nikos Xylouris.

Nicknamed Psaronikos, Nikos Xylouris (1936-1980) was a lyra player and composer, but became more famous for his unique voice and is still revered as the ‘Archangel of Crete’.

His distinctive vocals - as exemplified by "Once Upon A Time" - made him the doyen of Cretan folk music.

In an interview on Chania TV  the Archangel of Crete revealed the origins of the nickname derived from “psari” (meaning fish).  Nikos Xylouris’ grandfather, Antonis Xylouris, was a fearless captain who was regarded with fear and tremor by the Turks in the then Ottoman-occupied Crete, so much so that word spread that he “ate the Turks like psaria".  The psari prefix had entered the Xylouris family etymology.

A Family Affair

In a 2015 film documentary, “A Family Affair” by Angeliki Aristomenopoulou, the viewer follows the three generations of musicians of the Xylouris family who seek to uphold and pass on the vibrant traditions of Cretan music, featuring Psarantonis and his son George, who explains:

“We don’t carry this tradition as a family weight. It’s part of our lives, of who we are. We need this tradition to live, like we need oxygen.”

For Apollonia, Nikos and Adonis, their Cretan musical heritage took on an interesting twist when their father, George Xylouris (also known as Psarogiorgis), married their mother, the Irish-Australian Shelagh Hannan.

The young Xylouris siblings were actually born in Melbourne but raised in Crete where, immersed in the island's rich cultural traditions, they discovered their musical roots.  They later returned to Melbourne to pursue their studies before embarking on a global musical journey.

In 2024 Xylourides performed at the Antipodes Festival in Melbourne in a homecoming for the ages but now it is Sydney’s turn.

As the media release for the Sydney performance informs the audience, the Xylourides – as trailblazers of an ancient art form - are not just caretakers of Cretan folk music but perhaps its finest working exponents, infusing the modes and patterns of their legendary father and grandfather with a hyper energy and youthful enthusiasm that is both infectious and powerful, whilst also bearing all the hallmarks of the strict traditions imparted by the wisdom of their Cretan elders.

Nikos is the master of the Cretan lyra, a pear-shaped three-stringed Greek violin, which is played with fingernails at a blistering speed and frenzy.  His brother, Adonis, plays the laouto, a Cretan lute whilst Apollonia brings to the stage the percussive rhythms of her Persian wooden goblet drum (or tombak).

As they told The Greek Herald:

 “Cretan music is in our blood”.

At the Factory Floor

On a balmy February night in Sydney, the dance floor of the theatre was transformed into a makeshift Cretan aloni, or threshing circle, where young Greek-Australians, many of Cretan descent, danced to the mesmerizing music of the Xylourides in a glendi that revived the best of Cretan folkloric music and dance traditions.

Xylouris Nostalgia

For this writer, watching the Xylourides performing the other night was like completing a journey of spiritual fulfilment.  Although I was never fortunate enough to see the late Nikos Xylouris perform live, his music continues to resonate and his memory will forever be eternal.

In particular, in the early 1970s I was touched by the chaos of an irreverent musical theatre play, "To Megalo Mas Tsirko" (Our Great Circus) with lyrics by Iakovos Kambanellis and music by Stavros Xarhakos.  It was first staged in Athens in 1973 and the songs performed on stage by Nikos Xylouris and his troupe famously became anti-fascist symbols against the Greek military junta which was then in its death throes.

 

Years later I visited a little record store in the Stoa Pesmazoglou in Athens operated by Nikos Xylouris’ widow, Ourania, and purchased my copy of this iconic recording.

In April 2019 I saw Psarantonis in concert at the unique cultural complex of Technopolis in Athens in a crowded theatre and witnessed first-hand his mesmerizing playing of the Cretan lyra.

 

Three years later, in September 2022, I was fortunate to attend “Once Upon A Time”, a spectacular tribute to the late Nikos Xylouris by the composer Stavros Xarhakos which was staged in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus Theatre in Athens in the shadows of the Acropolis.

The Xylouris clan was centre stage, with Psarantonis leading a rousing rendition of Filentem (“our friend”).

 

Fast forward to 12 February 2025 in Sydney and my Xylouris experience has finally come full circle.  It was a Cretan musical feast.

Sydneysiders can still catch Xylourides at the Greek Festival of Sydney on Saturday 22 February.

As Nikos told The Greek Herald:

“I really hope to see a lot of people attend the show in Sydney.   We haven’t played that much there in the past, so I don’t know how much they know us yet, apart from the Cretan community. But this time around, in Melbourne, we had a lot of non-Greeks come just out of interest to hear something new, and I love that. I love seeing a diverse crowd who enjoy it in their own way.”

An event not to be missed.

 

George Vardas is the Arts and Culture Editor and an unabashed Nikos Xylouris tragic.