Sissi Rada, the non-de-plume of classically trained harpist Sissi Makropoulou, debuts for iDeal following a series of releases for various underground outlets (her 2024 LP for Stroom perhaps the most WOE-coded of recent times) and a range of high-end collaborations with the likes of Eno, Lena Platonos, Christina Vantzou ++. Makropoulou’s creative trajectory is an intriguing one, slowly moving from her institutional/conservatoire roots into the off-centre experimental confines of the European underground, in some ways not unlike that of the new Danish school of artists of the past decade or so. The appropriately named Serious Songs seems to split the difference between her past and present, an avant folk reimagining of Wagner on the A and Brahms on the B that reflects her compositional chops and undeniably affecting vocal without being overly reverential or precious. Makropoulou is an obviously highly skilled performer, yet there’s a refreshing oddness at work here that doesn’t feel overly learned, expressing parallels with those first encounters with Joanna Newsom, Delphine Dora or Svitlana Nianio, a portal into a world rendered just off to one side. She also does both subtle and dramatic very well, the skill of that in the nuance of the arrangements that draw not only from the harp but a range of sources and interests - brass, various strings, the tension of opera, the intimacy of folk and so forth. Mostly, you’re confronted by the confidence of the entire production, an artist highly adept at shifting through the range of her practice in search of new spaces. Serious Songs they may be, but overtly playful too, and it’s in that dissonance that Makropoulou’s finds her voice.
FFO: Joanna Newsom, Delphine Dora, Svitlana Nianio
