Up and Away

Released

This fourth album by Athens-based visual artist and musician Stella Chronopoulou is a warm sea of dreamy indie pop, slinky R&B, and vintage Greek sounds from the 1960s and 1970s, with a clear nod to contemporaries like Khruangbin. It’s also her first with producer Tom Calvert (aka Redinho), who helps pull all these different elements into a cohesive sound. With an irresistibly catchy organ riff and flourishes of  bouzouki, the opening title track strikes a romantic tone thanks to Chronopoulou’s soft vocals. Across the record her voice is relaxed and understated, floating over the groovy bassline on “Charmed”, the delicate kanun strings on “Who Cares” and “Is it Over”, or Christos Skondra’s blistering improvised bouzouki. Wistful and intimate, Up and Away feels like a warm, late-summer evening.

Megan Iacobini de Fazio