Echo the nymph of reflection (2020)

Stereo electroacoustic composition

Composed in the composer’s personal studio

Performers recorded: Machi Dimitriadou Lindahl [dance] and Agnese Banti, Iliana Karaliga and Fotini Dakaki [singing performance] 

Programme note: Echo is a tragic nymph. She is the nymph that was punished with the curse of not being able to speak her own words, but only being able to repeat the last words spoken by another person. This cruel punishment led to her tragic end. She lost her body and became a spirit, existing in all those places-spaces that echo our voices back. 

Echo did not consider the consequences of her actions, she failed to reflect on them and, as a result, she received this cruel punishment. Is it possible to think of Echo as a symbol of a process that can lead to completion? When Narcissus asked Echo “Who are you?”, he received the echorepetition of his question. This triggered something inside him; it made him realise that he is the son of the rivernymph. What he really wanted then was to reconnect with his mother and his real nature, to become one with the source of his creation. This liberated him, but, at the same time, brought his human life to an end. 

The myth could be a reminder that reflection is a way to understand and realise things about ourselves. Echo is one of these reflections; she can make our voice, which is asking the question “Who are you?”, return to us and ask us who we are. How do we feel when we hear our voices ask us who we are? Can this, as previously suggested, lead to an understanding and realisation, or is it also possible for it to lead to destruction? The easiest, but, also the most honest answer, is that both are possible. If both realisation and destruction are possible, then can we choose which of the two we want? If it is possible to choose, what would you choose?

Echo The Nymph Of Reflection (2020)

The piece was created using sounds from a sound installation featured at the 6th Open Nights inter-art festival in Larissa, Greece. The installation was showcased in the Roman Tank of Diocletian, a monument largely unfamiliar to the city as it is situated within a specially designed space in the basement of an apartment building. Sounds of water and debris, combined with noisy and melodic tones, create a soundscape within this space. The reservoir dates back to the late Roman and early Byzantine periods (3rd - 5th century AD) and served as a source of inspiration for the piece.

-Mention, Prix Russolo 2024, Annecy (Haute-Savoie, France)
-Finalist, 13th Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses 2024, Ohain (Belgium)
-Prize, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2025, Leuk (Switzerland)

Lacuum [2022]

an oasis in the concrete

The work is contrasting aural places of intimacy and enclosure with expansive spaces and propagates through their interaction.  The title is borrowed from a painting by René Magritte, depicting two coffins seated in a mountainous landscape. The source materials for the work have been recorded with an 18 channel microphones arrange in a globe shape, encoded in Higher Order Ambisonics. The work was completed with the support of Musiques & Recherches at the Métamorhose d'Orphée studio during in the summer of 2024. 

Par une belle fin d'apres-midi (stereo reduction)

Binaural dummy head field recording in Tuscany countryside, Colli Pisani area. Recording date: 25/4/2025. Zoom F3, Dummy Head. 

Birds, bees, flies, small stream and some airplane at cruise altitude are udible.

Binaural Dummy Head Field Recording Tuscany Session 25/4/2025

Desert

Drug Issues

Tromsø

Claustro 5.1 (for Huw Mcgregor) 

Derived from the Latin, "claustrum," meaning "shut-in" or "enclosure." Claustro is the third composition in a series of works which explore aural micro-space. A sounding place of improved intelligibility through greater aural intimacy. The work is an invitation to come in and listen out for the thin line between philia and phobia that such places evoke. The discontinuous and non-homogenous nature of acoustic space inspires the arrangement of sound materials here.  Recordings of original sound sources were conducted using a micro multichannel array designed and built in collaboration with Huw Mcgregor.

Claustro Stereo Reduction

The inspiration for this piece came from the sounds of nature combined with those of modern industrial society. In addition to these, sounds of musical instruments were also incorporated. In particular, percussive sound-shapes are merged with buzz-like tones selected from original sound material recorded near beehives. The form of the project evolved along with the composition of the piece, and its development is based on the distinctive morphologies of these sounds. The piece is constructed as a multi-layered sound environment, within which intense sonic gestures are developed.

-Prix, Concurso Internacional de Composição Electroacústica Música Viva 2011, Parede (Portugal)
-Mention Gianfranco-Maffina, Prix Russolo 2012, Annecy (Haute-Savoie, France)

Human Sea

Kostas Frantzis