Γρηγόρης Σαμόλης

Grigoris Samolis is a Cretan lyra player and singer from Aimonas, a village in Mylopotamos, Rethymno. He began playing the lyra as a child, encouraged by his family and taught within the living musical tradition of his home region. His early appearances at local celebrations and on Cretan television introduced him to a wider audience. Over time he developed into a regular presence at glentia and concerts in Greece and among Cretan communities abroad, working with a succession of laouto players while keeping the lyra at the centre of his performances. Samolis is associated with songs including “Ο Λυράρης” and “Σαράντα κόμπους”. His repertoire is rooted in Cretan folk music, but his live sets are shaped for contemporary audiences, moving between sung material, instrumental passages and the communal momentum of the traditional Cretan feast. For Samolis, tradition is not a museum piece but a practice handed from one generation to the next. That outlook defines both his playing and his public work: recognisably Cretan in language and instrumentation, direct in delivery, and built around the social character of the music.