Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma are a completely unique duo. Central to their musical world is the lyre, an instrument found in many musical traditions of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean and of course in Crete where they have lived for many years. But the music Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma play does not belong to any particular local or national tradition.

It includes a rich array of influences from many different timeless tropical traditions that harmoniously blend together in a new genre and sound that Ross Daly himself calls Contemporary Tropical Music. This genre, however, bears little resemblance to what we usually imagine when we say contemporary music.

The sound of this music is somewhere outside of the defined time where it reverts between primordial sounds of the distant past and sounds from the future. Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma, inspired by a deep belief and understanding of the transcendent and transpersonal dimension of the ancient and archetypal tropical traditions of the East, have apprenticed with some of the most important exponents of this music.

Then all the knowledge they have gathered from these sources is incorporated into their own compositions that reflect their understanding of the sacred nature of music itself. With them on percussion is Zoe Papadantonaki.

On Wednesday 8/01/2025 at 20:30 at the Thirathen Museum.