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You've Seen The Odyssey Now Experiece The Music With Robin Batteau
Published 2 hours ago
Description
Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon’s epic triumph The Odyssey resurrects the ancient world that turbocharged Western civilization — democracy, theater, philosophy, architecture, art.
If that era had a soundtrack, it would sound uncannily like Robin Batteau’s magical, mystical Banned in Sparta: eleven songs mosaic‑ed from the shards of pottery and scraps of parchment left behind by Greece’s great lyric poets. These were the original singer‑songwriters — Archilochus, Sappho, Alcaeus — performing with lyres the way Dylan or Taylor Swift perform with guitars today.
Batteau built these songs like a paleontologist assembling a T. Rex, filling gaps in the ancient fragments with “musical bones” of his own devising. And to bring them fully to life, he chose voices from our own Golden Age of singer‑songwriting: Eric Andersen (“tremulous, touchingly chamber finale”), Carolyn Hester (who hosted Dylan’s first recorded appearance), Livingston Taylor, Kate Taylor, Tom Paxton, rocker Robin Lane, plus Tony‑winning actor James Naughton and his children Greg and Keira, Batteau himself, and newcomer Matt Nakoa.
The result is a contemporary folk mosaic that feels both ancient and modern — a soundtrack to the world Homer walked through.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-view-from-the-writing-instrument--1023245/support.
If that era had a soundtrack, it would sound uncannily like Robin Batteau’s magical, mystical Banned in Sparta: eleven songs mosaic‑ed from the shards of pottery and scraps of parchment left behind by Greece’s great lyric poets. These were the original singer‑songwriters — Archilochus, Sappho, Alcaeus — performing with lyres the way Dylan or Taylor Swift perform with guitars today.
Batteau built these songs like a paleontologist assembling a T. Rex, filling gaps in the ancient fragments with “musical bones” of his own devising. And to bring them fully to life, he chose voices from our own Golden Age of singer‑songwriting: Eric Andersen (“tremulous, touchingly chamber finale”), Carolyn Hester (who hosted Dylan’s first recorded appearance), Livingston Taylor, Kate Taylor, Tom Paxton, rocker Robin Lane, plus Tony‑winning actor James Naughton and his children Greg and Keira, Batteau himself, and newcomer Matt Nakoa.
The result is a contemporary folk mosaic that feels both ancient and modern — a soundtrack to the world Homer walked through.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-view-from-the-writing-instrument--1023245/support.