Among our projects, at the time, was the production of a series of records of folk music which would be based on the dance repertoire of small regional communities. It was a time when there were hardly any trustworthy recordings of the music accompanying the great variety of Greek folk dances, a lack which filled those of us who had devoted their lives to the study, the teaching and diffusion of the popular traditions of this country through the medium of the Greek folk dance with feelings of immense frustration and regret.

Elated after hearing these wonderful Limassol musicians, because - as Phoebus Anoyianakis later wrote epigrammatically - they were “untainted by the influence of western music”, I proposed to the Administrative Council of the Lyceum Club of Greek Women the idea that we record them, without, of course, knowing when or whether we would be able to publish this material. The proposal was immediately accepted and the recording was made by the unforgettable Sifis Siganos, under the supervision of Phoebus Anoyianakis.

Six years later, in 1975, the first LP record of the Lyceum Club of Greek Women (LCGW 101) appeared, under the general title: FOLK MUSIC Dances - Songs. It contained a few dances from the “Boulès” -this marvelous traditional dance play of Naoussa, Macedonia- and only a part of the recording of the Limassol musicians. The general title of the series defined its basic orientation, which was to be the dance and was to be directed towards the presentation of the repertoire of small, local communities. This first edition carried comments by Ph. Anoyiannakis and was later followed by other LP’s - 16 titles in all - which were, in time, sold out.

The years went by, technologies changed, and the Lyceum Club of Greek Women, recognising and accepting the needs and demands of the new era, decided to reissue its series of records on digital compact disks, the first independent issue being that of the dances from the region of Limassol, Cyprus.

The possibilities offered by the new technology in terms of the length of recording time available, has afforded us the opportunity to expand the first edition and to include in the new digital CD not only the material of the first LP record, with the introductory notes and comments by Phoebus Anoyianakis on the dances of Limassol, Cyprus, but also the entire recording realised in 1969. Thus, the new edition becomes complete, since in now includes all the music of the dances of Limassol recorded at that time, as it was performed by two admirable musicians who, again according to Phoebus Anoyianakis, “retain in their playing the modal character and ethos of the Greek popular melody”.

January 1997
Lefteris Drandakis