"Café Aman, rembetiko's early, more elaborate, multicultural and Eastern-sounding form, is well served by a rich legacy of classic recordings and songs especially from the 1920s and '30s ... How exciting, then, to hear two contemporary groups [also: Café Aman Istanbul] who are playing and updating the Café Aman tradition in different ways, and whose sound and aesthetic places the music firmly in the 21st Century while remaining true to the heart, soul and essential musical style of this repertoire: largely acoustic and sensitively virtuosic ... Loxandra are Thessaloniki, Greece-based, but equally or more oriented east to Smyrna (as was) and Istanbul/Constantinople ... Loxandra have invited in the cream of the (mostly) younger generation of Greek and Turkish vocalists and musicians to give each song a unique singer and interpretation. The core band create a gorgeous sound of interleaving entwining clarinet, oud, violin, kanun and subtle double bass, and the hand percussion isveryalive and responsive - bubbling and driving the music forward, so that however heart-tugging the melody, there is a joie-de-vivre ... They know their roots and put their own stamp on this music, moving it onward with nothing lost and something added".
