Lydia Kakabadse: Kefi

Kakabadse is always good value — a British-born composer whose music remains accessible while drawing on a rich variety of cultural influences.
This latest release is thoroughly enjoyable, offering a wide palette of sounds. It’s highly filmic — easy to imagine accompanying scenes from big-budget movies.
“The Feast of Herod” opens the album, scored for bouzouki, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. It evokes a banquet scene with veiled dancers performing — music that could easily drop into an Indiana Jones sequence as he passes through an exotic setting. Subtle and resonant, it’s easy on the ear and never imposing.
“Nomadic Dances” follows, echoing similar themes but with more irregularity. So far, so Greek — a soundscape that culminates in the title track, “Kefi”, a word with no direct English translation. For the purposes of this album, it’s defined as joy, vibrancy, and excitement. Again scored for Greek bouzouki and strings, it leans more towards folk than classical.
A complete change of mood arrives with “Original Theme” by Anton Diabelli, followed by “Variation on a Theme” — shifting the listener from Indy Jones to a dainty piano piece fit for a Jane Austen adaptation. (Diabelli, an Austrian-born publisher and composer, wrote a 32-bar waltz which he sent to leading male composers of the Austrian Empire, inviting each to write a variation. In 2021, German musicologist Claudia Bigos invited women composers worldwide to contribute to a project titled Diabelli Recomposed. This piece is one of those contributions.)
“Steps” changes the mood again — think monks-in-a-cloister, part Dan Brown, part spiritual, part eerie. It portrays a musical journey of spiritual growth, with lyrics sung and chanted based on The Ladder of Divine Ascent, an ascetic guide. Each upward step represents one of the 30 stages of ascetic life. It’s solemn and reflective, with sections titled “Renunciation of the World”, “Overcoming Vices”, and “Self Denial”.
Warmly recommended — as is all her music. Performers include The Rossetti Ensemble, Dimitris Gionis (bouzouki), Leon Bosch (double bass), and the Choir of Royal Holloway under Rupert Gough.
Released on Divine Art, catalogue number DDX21129.
JMC