Investigating the impact of Electroacoustic Music in Greek Culture, through a portfolio of Electroacoustic Music works which explore religious and mythological aspects of Greece.

EPAMEINONDAS P. FASIANOS

My research investigated the viability of various electroacoustic music compositional approaches, which were used in a series of works that explored specific relationships between real-world and abstracted sound materials, through the strategic use of pitched, melodic, and non-pitched materials (as well as specific characteristics and behaviours of those materials) as integral elements in the composition. All of the compositions were linked to Greece in various ways, either directly or symbolically. My primary goal was to present transformed aspects of Greece while exploring all of these different levels musically through electroacoustic music. Furthermore, I attempted to explore new electroacoustic music territories by embarking on a journey from real-world instrumental and concrete soundworlds based on aspects of Greek culture (religion, mythology) to abstract soundworlds. Real-world soundworlds are made up of sounds, spaces, and places that have the potential to communicate human experiences such as familiar impressions, aural images, and evocations for the listener. Abstract soundworlds that emerge from real-world ones via various transformation processes include specific sounds, spaces, and places that can be notably different from those that emerge from real-world soundworlds. My main overall goal was to develop innovative techniques and processes that explore the intersections, contrasts, connections, and discourse between the two.

Programme Notes

Performances

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Icarus

Icarus (2014): A stereo electroacoustic composition with recordings of airplanes made with the use of binaural microphones. In addition, the same type of microphones was used for recording additional sound material used for the piece, including piano, and stones sounds. This work was characterized by transitions from the real world to the abstracted and vice versa. Both pitched and non-pitched materials were used. The airplane sounds were treated in two different ways: I. They provided an actual real-world airplane soundscape. II. They were transformed and used as background sonic elements, combined with transformed piano sounds. At the same time, the stone sounds were also used as real-world soundworlds as well as abstract structures. The relationship between the actual airplane sounds and the actual stone sounds was gradually built via the smooth transitions with use of abstracted soundworlds (with use of transformations and airplane sound speed-ups) but also via sudden transitions. Consequently, abstract sounds were used as a communication bridge for two real-world sounds of different origin. Stone sounds were chosen to create contrasting textures which oppose the continuously flowing airplane sounds. The relationship between real-world and abstracted mediums was built through an internal dialogue between abstract background transformed airplane and piano sounds – which are present throughout the whole piece – and foreground real-world airplane and stone sounds. Pitched sounds were also applied to both real-world and abstracted sounds at certain sections of the work. Moreover, the transition between real-world airplane sounds and abstract sounds was also achieved by the application of filters, which led to the creation of ‘human breathing’ effects, with the proper manipulation of the sound. Finally, pitched and non-pitched materials were also used as a medium of interaction for real-world and abstract soundworlds.

Land of the Sirens

MANTIS Festival, Martin Harris Centre, Manchester, October 29th 2017
DIFFRAZIONI Multimedia Festival, Le Murate PAC | Progetti arte contemporanea, Firenze, March 30th 2019

Time Travel

Time Travel (2016): Time Travel is an acousmatic composition based on recordings of a priest's voice and a male choir in the Greek Orthodox Church of Haghia Sophia, in Athens. It is my personal interpretation of the experience of being in an Orthodox Liturgy. Information about the actual space where the liturgy takes place is given throughout the piece as well. I consider this work as a 'travel' between the actual place and my own internal perception of the psalms and the mystery of the holy liturgy; using the priest's voice as a reference point. In addition, I regard this composition as a “travel” back to where Byzantine hymns first appeared: In the Church of Haghia Sophia in Constantinople.

Icarus

MANTIS Festival, Martin Harris Centre, Manchester, February 28th 2015

Time Travel

MANTIS Festival, Martin Harris Centre, Manchester, October 29th 2016

Land of the Sirens

Land of the Sirens (2016): Land of the Sirens concerns The Odyssey, one of the two Epics, along with The Iliad, attributed to Homer. It refers to the adventures of Ulysses (Odysseus), the King of Ithaca, after the mythological Trojan War. My work focuses on the adventure of Ulysses and his men on the island of the Sirens. The work includes sound objects which mimic sounds in the original narrative (crackling boat sounds, water sounds and pointillistic micromelodies that suggest the presence of the Sirens’ s chants). Soundworlds emerging from a traditional Greek woodwind instrument called floghera were also utilized throughout the work.

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