This is Len with SantoriniDave.com and I'm here with Nikos Papalakis
in Rethymno Crete Greece and we're in his workshop. Good morning Nikos.
Kalimera nice can you tell me a little bit about your space here what's going on here what are you
doing it's a family business yeah and this houston and it used to be a workshop
we make here the kardan traditional lyra okay it's a it's a job from my father it's used to work now
for 45 years and i'm working also about 22 years now okay okay we make the lyra this is the lyra
it used to be it has three strings okay it's the same tuning as a violin you play also with a bow
it can come with three different types of wood this is that's a walnut that's a rosewood sorry
you can make it from rosewood on the back side you can make it from
uh walnut and mulberry okay it's all always one piece and this is specifically a cretan
curtain okay okay we have the cedar in front okay and uh there are just three pieces okay
one piece on the back always one in front and one is the tie okay and that's it you need about 100
hours to make something like this 100 hours so it's going to be about 10 days and so what is
the cost of one piece like this it depends we can have for students from 300 euro and keeps up up to
1000 euro for the profession like this one okay uh something very special for this instruments
if you see here the streaks are more high and that's why because i use my nail to the string
like this and this is the way i make the sound because in violin i use my finger on the string
and also the violin the string are very very down okay it's down here it's more up so and that's why
because i use my string my my nail to the string so i can make the sound can you demonstrate yes
let's hear what happened
beautiful so nice can you take me around your workshop show me some of the tools tell me a
little bit about the different styles maybe show me an older instrument versus a newer one
we can have uh i can show you here this is the first piece of making the lyra and all of this
wood comes from crete yes yes and it's keep going to this piece so it's a hard joke really
okay and you do every step of the work every day okay all the steps yes okay and the bird
on the back here yes yes what is this design the quality i want to know that in english
duck or no no no no the name the name of this bird is uh it will come back to you
yes nice so this is the raw the starting with the raw wood and then carving into the piece
with the uh with the carving on the back yes always the carving on the back yes always okay
and this is a obviously a bird from crete yes yes yes yes nice everything is concrete everything is
from grid okay and can you show me maybe what's the difference with these larger instruments up
top that's not really right this we go to the loot okay this is for credit music both and then we go
to bouzouki that's a bouzouki for greek music can i hear a little bit of that yeah that's a crazy
go
nice this is the bouzouki yes that's the bazooka all right typical greek
okay and this one up here yes
you can see that it's a huge mandarin
so for someone who plays the violin it's very easy for him to play also a little bit
so you said that your father before you did this work and his father as well yeah i met him the
other day he's 43 years old and he's 43 yes 14 73 yeah i'm 42 right and do you have a son yes and
are you teaching him this tradition it's too small it's almost four months and six days but i hope
and i feel that gun comes here also nice i'm just learning as someone who's new to crete that the
traditions are so strong the pottery and the food and the music tell me a little bit about for you
keeping this tradition alive is that why is that important to you and tell me about that
part of your business first of all i'm sure that is a good wish to have this traditional
shop because the island of the creek is smoke so small okay but the goat
for a reason for a good reason always keep give his life for this in this part because
i'm sure that in many many years he's gonna blessing him with all this uh with all this uh
instruments okay and how long have you or your father been working in this exact space in this
space we are from 1995 in this shop so 25 years in this shop okay and is the city changing around you
or the old town of rhythm now for the most part it stays very similar exactly exactly it's normal to
be changed but the shop is still the same as we gave it from the first day great and so are you
are you one of very few people doing this tradition in rethymno are there are many
people making these like this well the kerala music is getting larger now so
the traditional music the traditional music okay so there are still there are also now more people
that they're making instruments i thought we don't call for that okay because the music is one
and the people who are making the instruments are similar like you in a family lineage they
all see the same age almost in the same age nice yes and there are also many
in the ages of uh from 15 and more and they starting to play very very good instruments
nice and are you also a performer are you primarily you're both someone who makes and
plays the instruments do you do performance or it's mostly with your family or what it's about
and are all is the music that you play is any of it new music that you're creating or it's
all old full cretan folk music i i like much uh the old music okay they're all traditional
music but i can see now that many many things that come out new things in you it's good yeah
it's good it's good a mix of the new and the old yeah nice and do you like to have tourists come
and visit your shop and talk about the crowd nice nice so nice to speak to speak for your life what
what do you love to do yeah what is your love for doing that great so you make one instrument
from beginning to end at a time or always working on many different ones yeah you can start with uh
three four okay and you keep you keep you keep you keep working them all of them together okay
and for you it's more easy to do that for making this nice and do you do custom orders
or you mostly make them the way you know i used to make them and they come here they can try the
instrument and they find what they want to go nice and so like with this lineup here along the wall
are there difference between each of these yeah they're very similar they are the same model i
mean for the professional ones okay but every lira is different because it's like the people every
people every man at home is different so the same thing happened to happen to to the to the
but maybe it sounds strange but that's the truth nice well and these are the tools that you use
great
thank you so much for sharing your life and this tradition with you it's amazing i hope everything
is getting great tell me your name once again the name of the business and where we are the workshop
we call it the papal exactly and my name is nicos papal nicos thank you so much for sharing this
i'm len the filmmaker with santorini dave and we're here in Rethymno crete
with nikos in his workshop again efkadisho thank you so much
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