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In the tradition of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Geoff Dyer, a Grammy-winning producer discovers a powerful and ancient folk music tradition. In a dark record shop in Istanbul, renowned collector Christopher King uncovered some of the strangest -- and most hypnotic -- sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible to contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. Lament from Epirus is an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which follows a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for traces of two long-lost virtuosos -- one of whom may have committed a murder -- he tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and whose descendants continue the tradition today.