Kairos Collective | Mulciber

9. Kairos / Stankina
10. Kalajdžijsko / Tinkers’ dance
11. Ægis Dœtr / Hüseynî medhâl
12. Nevâ Taksim / Improvisation on the kanun
13. Aliveri / Nevâ saz semâî
14. Hisâr-Bûselik Taksim / Improvisation on the violin and cello
15. Mulciber / Hisâr-Bûselik peşrev
16. Satyr / Chasapiko burlesque (album outro)

Credits

Musicians

Sergios Voulgaris – kudüm [2, 4, 8, 13, 15]
Jacobus Thiele – bendir [5, 9], adufe [7], chime tree, zills [9]
Eleanna Papanikolopoulou – daoulaki [1], bendir [10]

Special guests
Ross Daly – lyra, bağlama saz [1], tarhu [10]
Kelly Thoma – soprano lyra [1, 10]
Sylvain Barou – gajda, zurna [1]
Asteris Varveris – laouto [1]
Efrén López – daf [1]
Richard de Waardt – carillon [16]

Tracks
All tracks were composed by Michiel van der Meulen, except 3, 6, 12 and 14, which are introductory improvisations, and 10, which is a traditional melody from Pirin Macedonia arranged by Wouter Swets (†) • All other arrangements were made by Kairos Collective • Tracks 2-4, 8 and 12-15 were recorded by Giorgos Kariotis at Sierra Studios (Athens, Greece) on 8 February 2025 • Tracks 5-7 and 9 were recorded by Giorgos Kariotis at Sierra Studios on 1 March 2025 • The kanun in tracks 2, 4, 8, 12, 13 and 15 was recorded by Vangelis Apostolou at Studio Vasmaris (Heraklion, Greece) on 16 March 2025 • Track 1 and 10 were recorded by Dimitris Vasmaris at Studio Vasmaris on 9 August 2025 • The wind and percussion instruments in track 1 were recorded by Sylvain Barou in his home studio in Persquen (France) and by Efrén López in his home studio in El Mas de Flors (Spain), respectively, on 21 October 2025 • Track 11 was recorded by Dimitris Palaiogiannis at Sun Inside Studio (Athens), on 17 October 2025; the bass in that track was recorded by Yannis Mavridis at Cue Productions (Thessaloniki, Greece), on 21 October 2025 • For track 16, Cengiz Arslanpay recorded street sounds at the Binnenrotte street market and the carillon at the Laurenskerk, both in Rotterdam, on 9 on 27 September 2025, respectively • Michiel van der Meulen rendered the street organ audio on 2 October 2025, and the track was mixed by Cengiz Arslanpay in his home studio in Rotterdam between 3 October and 1 November 2025 • Tracks 1-15 were mixed by Vangelis Apostolou between 13 October and 5 December 2025 • The album was mastered by Vangelis Apostolou beween 6 and 22 December 2025.

Album
Production, artwork and liner notes – Michiel van der Meulen

Acknowledgements
Many thanks are due to: Ross Daly and Labyrinth Musical Workshop for guidance and inspiration • The musicians and technical staff for the great time we spent and the great job they did • The people who appear in the stories in the liner notes: the families Theocharopoulos and Orfanidis, my survey colleagues featuring in the volcano tales, and the micromammal palaeontologists of the Universities of Utrecht, Madrid and Athens, in particular my father, Albert (†) • Dimitris Vasmaris and Yiannis Kalomoiris for their flexibility when we wanted to record ‘Propontis’—our only shot—but forgot to book the studio • Jan Wollring for clarifying the origins of the Kalajdžijsko • Nikolas Kompridis for our conversations about philosophy, science, music, composition, politics, history, identity, and the Anthropocene, which somehow became part of this project • My parents and parents-in-law for supporting this project • Tom and Veerle van der Meulen for reminding me what matters • Martine van der Meulen, for your love and support under difficult circumstances – this album was inspired by the Earth, and you are the world to me.

TouMilou #9 / EAN 6150833045045
© 2025 M.J. van der Meulen/TouMilou

About the artwork
Sir William Hamilton (London, 13 December 1731 – 6 April 1803) was a British diplomat, antiques collector and amateur vulcanologist. During a posting as envoy extraordinary to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800, he became captivated by the Mount Vesuvius volcano, which soon after his arrival began showing signs of activity that would culminate in the 1767 eruption. He reported about he volcano’s activity to the Royal Society of London in a series of letters that would later be published as Campi Phlegræi¹. The album, score book, and web cover images are fragments of ‘Plate IX – Interior view of the crater of Mount Vesuvius, as it was before the great eruption of 1767’, a hand-coloured engraving based on a painting by the Anglo-Neapolitan artist Pietro Fabris (1740 – 1792). The inner sleeve of the CD pack is based on Plate X from the same publication.

Pîrî Reis (1465?–1553) was a legendary Ottoman admiral and cartographer. The Propontis track art incorporates a fragment of his map of the Marmara Island in the Sea of Marmara (called Propontis by the Ancient Greeks).

Dutchman Johan van Hell (Amsterdam, 28 February 1889 – 31 December 1952) was a socially engaged visual artist and musician. The album outro art features his work Draaiorgel (Street organ, c. 1930, litho, 23 x 34 cm).
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¹ Sir William Hamilton, 1776. Campi Phlegræi – Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London. Naples, 54 plates with explanations.