There are languages that do not disappear suddenly. They fade little by little, when they are no longer heard at home, in songs, in the town square, or in grandparents’ stories. And there are moments when a new voice, geographically far from the place where that language was born, decides to bring it back into the light.
That is what Alessandra Talarico is attempting under the name Iatria, through her album “Aionia.” Although she is based in Montreal, she travels frequently to Greece and Calabria.
“Aionia” is a return—not to a place in the narrow sense, but to a memory that stretches from Greece to Calabria, from Magna Graecia to today’s diaspora, from the first Greek colonies in southern Italy and Sicily around 800 BC to the small villages where the Greek-speaking dialects Griko and Grecanico still survive, albeit with difficulty and determination.
Her first encounter with the Greek dialects of southern Italy came through music. Listening to Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, she recalls immediately feeling that something had awakened within her. Her curiosity deepened when she began reading La Poesia Grica: The Griko Poetry, edited by Antonio Anchora. As she told protothema.gr, what moved her most were the people behind the language: poems filled with love for Greece, the Greek language, their villages, and an identity that had to be preserved through time.
“What captivated me wasn’t simply the language, but the people behind it,” she says. In those verses she recognized something of herself. As a member of the diaspora who grew up far from her ancestral homelands, she immediately felt the need to reconnect. The Griko poets’ love for their heritage reminded her of her own desire to better understand the Greek and Calabrian sides of her family’s history.
See HERE Iatria’s album titled “Aionia”
From there, a long journey of discovery began. She read about Grecìa Salentina, the Area Grecanica of Calabria, and the communities that kept the Greek-speaking dialects alive in a region where languages, cultures, and empires succeeded one another over the centuries. Griko became her first gateway into that world and, as she explains, naturally found its place in “Aionia.”
The title itself carries meaning. “Aionia” is the Greek word for “eternal.” Yet the song is sung in Griko. The choice creates a bridge between modern Greek and a Greek dialect that has survived for centuries in southern Italy. For Talarico, that bridge has deeply personal significance. On one side is her maternal Greek heritage; on the other is her father’s Calabria, a land shaped by Magna Graecia—the historic imprint left by the Greeks in southern Italy and Sicily.
Perhaps this is the most compelling aspect of her story. Iatria does not present herself as an expert or as the “savior” of a language. She insists that she is still learning, that she is on a personal journey of reconnection. If her work inspires even one person in the diaspora to wonder about their own history, she says, it will have been worthwhile.
That story begins with the first Greek colonies in the Mediterranean and reaches today’s people striving to preserve a linguistic and cultural heritage spanning three thousand years. In the villages of Salento and Calabria, Greek-speaking traditions became, for generations, a way of preserving memory. Today, young people, musicians, researchers, teachers, members of the diaspora, and descendants of those communities are seeking new ways to keep them alive.
In her own way, Iatria belongs to this new generation. She sees heritage as something passed from hand to hand, from voice to voice, from language to language.
“The fact that someone from a younger generation can still learn these dialects, sing them, and introduce them to new audiences reminds me that heritage isn’t just something we inherit; it’s something we actively choose to carry forward,” she says.
That statement also summarizes her musical vision. On “Aionia,” Griko and Grecanico meet contemporary electronic music. This approach emerged after extensive study and personal reflection. She had already devoted considerable time to reading, listening, and understanding the history of these communities. Through electronic music, she wanted to introduce these dialects to listeners who would probably never encounter them otherwise.
The album’s production follows the same idea of building bridges. Alongside electronic elements, Iatria incorporates live-recorded instruments such as flute and cello. As a result, the music combines a contemporary texture with organic warmth. She describes the arrangements as reflecting the album’s central idea: respect for the past while searching for new ways to carry it into the future.
Montreal played a special role in this journey. The city’s multicultural environment gave her the space to create, while also providing the distance needed to see more clearly where she came from. Although she lives in Canada, she traveled frequently to Greece and Calabria. Every return, she says, gave her a sense of familiarity, peace, and belonging. And every return to Montreal strengthened her desire to learn more about the history, music, and languages of those places.
Music became her way of carrying her identity wherever she went. She listened to Greek and Italian music, immersed herself in their languages, searched for connections, and gradually began creating original material inspired by that heritage.
“Home isn’t just a place you return to—it’s something you carry within you,” she says.
For her, music, language, and culture became a daily way of preserving that connection.
“Aionia” is also an invitation—an invitation to hear once again languages that risk being confined to a handful of speakers, archives, research projects, or local initiatives. Iatria believes that contemporary music can genuinely help this effort. Her song is the first public expression of her passion for the Greek heritage of southern Italy.
Her next step turns even more toward Grecanico, the Greek dialect of Calabria. As she continues learning, she wants her future music to reflect that journey, honoring the language, its history, and the communities that preserved it for generations. At the same time, she shares what she learns without presenting herself as an expert. She prefers to speak as someone reconnecting with her roots.
“If what I share encourages even one other member of the diaspora to become curious about their own history, then it will have been worthwhile,” she says. In a rapidly changing world, Iatria sees languages, traditions, and stories as pieces of identity that are worth reclaiming with care and commitment.
And in this way, “Aionia” takes on its full symbolism. A young artist from Montreal, with roots in Greece and Calabria, takes an ancient language and allows it to be heard through a contemporary sound. From Magna Graecia to today’s music platforms, from the villages of southern Italy to the Canadian diaspora, the same journey continues: people seek out their roots, sing about them, and carry them a little further.
Iatria hopes to devote her life to this endeavor. Every person who rediscovers their roots, she believes, helps keep this heritage alive. “Aionia” is her first public step on that journey—a song about memory, ancestry, and continuity. A song about things that come from the distant past and still seek a voice today.
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