Review by Simon Jenner, July 15 2026
★ ★ ★ ★ (★)
A cool sound for a record-breaking heatwave. Stelios Kyriakidis is an intentionally acclaimed Greek guitarist who plays his own composition, those of others and his own arrangements.
Kyriakidis starts with his own beguiling Optical Suite. It bears the hallmark of his style. That is a gently introspective sound palette, riding to heights of virtuosity when required but he eschews that kind of Williams sound world.
Kyriakidis declares his palette extends too beyond the imagined sound-world of the guitar towards the film world and narrative; one where the Cavatina from Stanley Myers’s The Deer Hunter hovers perhaps.
The Suite moved through summer phases and is succeeded by two arrangements. The standout piece by Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) almost alone as a woman composer And wholly so as one writing this mind of song. It’s a gem and realized here gives it new life.
Richard Rodgers ‘My Favourite Things really does swing in a world of muted showed and distant thunder.
Kyriakidis, who was born in 1981, continues with his own ‘Keep Going’ from 2024. Though about motivation and perseverence it is, as the composer noted, apposite to today’s blaze of noon. It’s memorable and again lyrically quietist with a nagging refrain.
The next pieces all hail from Kyriakidis’ new album released in February .
”You Are Leaving I and II’ own a melancholic acceptance, as if at the end of a relationship just ended, though without acrimony. Here some latter techniques including chaconne-like figurations drift in like an obsession of ostinato tone. He follows this with ‘Fading Memories’ which brings in that Cavatina world. His next piece ‘After the Dream’ is recent and references the fear of loss: something marbles through Kyriakidis’ output.
‘I’ll Split Mine With You’ is an ambiguously-titled piece, with a kind of inciting “I want” kind of melody you get from the establishing of a central character in a musical. It’s again memorable, with an accelerated three-note refrain that acts as an earworm.
The ‘Lullaby’ that follows naturally contrasts with this. Using the quietest palette and registers Kyriakidis’ slowly raises the melody to a contemplative climax.
‘Sacrifice’ commemorates an art-film director from which this piece takes its title: Andrei Tarkovsky. This piece doesn’t pay to homage Russian music as such but is darkly hued and introspective.
The near tautological ‘Stars Shine Brightest at Night’ is as near a rousing conclusion as Kyriakidis wishes to take us. There’s a pop ballad underpinning it. It’s possibly the most memorable piece Kyriakidis has composed. A wonderful concert and a hidden gem.
Photo Credits: Simon Jenner
