If you’re longing for a touch of Mediterranean comfort at home, Σtella’s new record offers just the right escape: Adagio – the title itself sets the pace – whisks listeners away to the summery Aegean, where Stella Chronopoulou first began working on the album almost by chance five years ago. At the time, the Greek singer was seeking a way out of a personal low – and what better place than during an eleven-hour boat trip to Anafi? Just as the picturesque Cycladic island is said to have risen from the sea by the hand of Apollo, a sweet melody suddenly struck Σtella, soon accompanied by instruments and, for the first time, words in her native tongue. Raised in a rural suburb of Athens, surrounded by goats and unlocked front doors, she captures that feeling of deceleration with Adagio: in the title track, cheerful percussion and guitars dance lightly around her gentle vocals, while the instrumental »Corfu« transports listeners straight to the northern shores of the Ionian Sea.
Σtella also pays homage to her Greek roots with a cover of Litsa Sakellariou’s »Ta Vimata«, reviving the mystical atmosphere of Greece’s New Wave era from 1969. Despite her rapidly growing success, Σtella stays true to her own tempo, gently reminding us, with a dreamy lightness, to pause and take a deep breath. Adagio.
