There are few things as thrilling as the first hints of summer arriving. A new scent in the air, winter layers shed in favour of dresses and shorts, a whole city seemingly breathing out. Some music, too, seems to be naturally infused with sunnier energy, and the songs of Σtella fit wholeheartedly into this category.
Born Stella Chronopoulou, Σtella is a Greek singer-songwriter whose stock-in-trade are infectious ballads, both as delicate and as timeless as folk standards – and above all, unfailingly warm. Her London show at the Jazz Café in support of fifth album, Adagio, is sold out, and there’s an air of expectant glee from as intimate a crowd as one could ask for – the stage is almost situated in the middle of the standing audience, ringed above by a balcony with diners looking on.
Σtella herself cuts a slightly unlikely figure for her exuberant slices of synth-pop – she’s a strangely shy frontwoman, arms held behind her back as she sways through the opening chords of ‘80 Days’. The on-stage setup is pleasingly minimal, these songs easily borne out between her accompaniment on bass, guitar, keys and drums – and her captivating, hushed delivery. Her sound itself is hard to classify, floating somewhere at the intersection of 80s synthesizers, Greek folk chords and sincere balladry.
The songs here slip by, feeling like half-remembered vignettes, glimmering and then ebbing away almost before you feel you’ve gotten to know them. Both band and crowd fall into a kind of trance, not least when Chronopoulou asks the venue to dim the lights, and performs ‘The Truth Is’, one of the gentlest ballads in her arsenal. It genuinely feels as if the slightest interruption would shatter the spell she holds over the room, her lyrics and delivery feeling almost confessional in their subtlety – the collective intake of breath feels nearly audible.
She says very little throughout, which may make it all sound rather austere, and it’s really not. The band’s performance is underpinned by the funkier end of Σtella’s repertoire – most notably tracks from her 2022 album with Redinho. Tracks like ‘Charmed’ are almost impossible not to side-step to, unwinding through a fabulously catchy stop-start rhythm – her ability to make pauses feel almost rhythmic themselves is fascinating.
There are few gigs where I’ve felt a grin ripple through quite so large a swathe of the crowd for so long – by the time Adagio’s title track is played Σtella has the Jazz Cafe in the palm of her hand. The back half of the gig sees this finally capitalised on too, descending into something resembling the raucous end to a wedding, the band racing through exuberant Mediterranean folk standards. A show that feels like a precious meeting of restraint and unabashed joy, Σtella singlehandedly ushered in summer at the Jazz Café.
featured image: Dimitra Tzanou
