An Odyssey

Retracement [2021]
commissioned & played by Sond'ar-te Electric Ensemble

live recording at O'Culto da Ajuda (PT), 3 May 2021

Retracement (2021), ensemble & electronics - excerpt

"au sujet de fusion: la genèse d'un(e) . . ." (2019-21)
for amplified ensemble - flute, saxophone, percussion, piano and electronics

Live recording

OPUS 22.1 Jeune Génération

Thursday, March 10, 2022
Le Rocher De Palmer

Proxima Centauri

Marie-Bernadette Charrier, saxophone
Sylvain Millepied, flute
Benoit Poly, percussion
Hilomi Sakaguchi, piano
Christophe Havel, electronics

"au sujet de fusion: la genèse d'un(e) . . .", for amplified ensemble and electronics (2019-20)

New Ec0-existence is an electroacoustic composition for stereo or multi-channel arrays. This piece was composed and recorded at Laboratory for Immersive Arts & Technology (LIATe), the Hong Kong Baptist University and his home studio, where I sculpted noise to explore spectromorphological approaches in acousmatic music. New Ec0-existence was developed through recording sound samples, analysing recorded sound samples, and organizing and processing the samples. The 500 samples recorded feature air sounds along with non musical instruments and traditional musical instruments. One of the sounds is releasing air from balloons which produces a sustained tone in high register. All the sound recorded is then layered, timestretched, modulated to orchestrate a realistic simulation of space in nature. The piece produces a 3D space with ambisonics environment to mimic nature sound, and aims to raise awareness of the ecological crisis we are facing through the use of electronics music.

The work is selected for the 2023/24 MA/IN Festival in Rome at the Goethe Institut.

New Ec0 - Existence BINAURAL

Reactive Ensemble:
Céline Papion, cello
Gabriele Mastrototaro, flute
Remmy Canedo, electronics

Premiere performance:
Delian Academy For New Music 2024
Cultural Foundation of Tinos, Greece
13 June 2024

Mixed at Reactive Studio, Berlin

In search of lost time (2024) for amplified flute, cello and electronics - Reactive Ensemble

Massive thanks to:
• EVOKE TATTOOS CHICAGO for the dope space they provided
• CRUISE MYERS  https://soundcloud.com/cruise222 for the dope performance 
• BROOKE M. ENGLEHART for the dope and super freaky costume that she created 
• H12 AUDIO for the dope mastering
————————
Ancient Greek text: 
Πρὸ τοῦ ἐμβῆναι ἐν βάθει εἰς τοιαῦτα μυστήρια, γνώθι:
ὁ παντοδύναμος νέος θεός ἡμῶν μεταβάλλει τὸν ἄνθρωπον 
πρὸς πηλόν πάλιν.
ὦ Δὶa
Ὦ Δὶa, ἄκουσον τὰς προσευχὰς τὰς κλαίουσας,
ἀναστῆθι ἐκ σήψεως, ἵνα γένωμαι τὸ παιδίον σου!
Ἔσο ὑπόσχεσίς μου!
Ἄκουε.
Ἄκουε, νεφέλωμα τοῦ ὑψίστου οὐρανοῦ,
ὡς γαυγίζει ὥσπερ πεινών κύων.
Μακάριος ἐστὶν ὁ δουλεύων τῷ Διὶ.
ὦ Δὶa
ὦ Δὶa
————————
English translation:
Before entering deeply into such mysteries, know:
our almighty new god turns man back into mud 
ὦ Zeus 
ὦ Zeus, listen to my weeping prayers,
rise from decay, so that I give birth to your child!
That's my promise!
Listen.
Listen, to the nebula of the heavenly highest sky,
as it howls like a hungry dog.
Blessed is he who works for Zeus.
ὦ Zeus
ὦ Zeus

RITUAL for Double bass, live electronics & lights (LYRICS IN DESCRIPTION)

Atropos (2024) for Bass flute solo

Machine learning (2018)
for amplified baritone saxophone and diffused electronics

IRCAM
Concert Cursus 2018
Centquatre, Salle 400 
June 16th, 2018

Interpreter : Elvis Sousa
Pedagogical supervision : 
• Mikhail Malt (Ircam)
• Claude Delangle (The Conservatory of Paris) 
Dedication: to Fred Lerdahl

In my piece Machine learning, I want to highlight the sound qualities of the key mechanism of the saxophone. It is amplified by several microphones on the outside, but also inside the main body of the instrument. This enabled me to access the hidden acoustic nuances of the instrument and investigate a new sonic territory, that of a sonic pallet full of various percussive sounds resonating in different ways. The goal of this project is to capture this hidden acoustic world of the instrument’s mechanism while understanding its potential for music making. Therefore, the performer is put in a place where he/she is reinvestigating the acoustic results of the traditional, common performance practices of the saxophone. The electronics are sonically intertwined with the acoustic properties of the resonant body of the instrument while expanding its acoustic and spatial possibilities. The final result is a projection of an augmented saxophone where acoustic and electronic sounds intermingle in a halo of mechanical sounds, metallic and versatile.

Machine learning (2018), for amplified baritone saxophone and diffused electronics

for viola, violoncello, contrabass, percussion and electronics
Premiered by Hezarfen Ensemble on October 31st, 2019 
Commissioned by Dystopia Festival
Concert recording: Gökhan Deneç

“Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms” 
William Shakespeare

“Natura respuit ut contraria quaeque iungantur” 
(Nature refuses the joining of unlike things)  
Boethieus

“There is a strange power in the joining of unlike things.”
Carnival Row season 1 Ep.4 15:04

The most successful dystopian fictions are created not by merely imagining a “utopia-gone-wrong” places but by exaggerating the features of the Past and the Present that contain potentials for them to become dystopian. These dystopian features are to be sought in the contemporary canvas of our societies: social memory loss, disregard for differences, unfounded familiarities, traces of past mass violence. What we call “ourselves” in a modern society are interwoven acts of barbarisms and adequate forgetfulness/indifference that go along with them. 

Les Traces de Notre Futur Antérieur for Hezarfen Ensemble takes this idea of “uncovering what is lost as a result of violence” and translates it into a musical circumstance that is inspired by the texts belonging to the people who once inhabited the Anatolian land for centuries.

Les Traces De Notre Futur Anterieur(2019)

Création le 15 mai 2019 Festival Les Musiques GMEM Marseille 
Nuria Gimenez composition 
Laurent Mariusse Marimba 
Charles Bascou et Pierre Fleurance électronique

Perì Phýseôs

Stylianos Dimou
électro-folie (2020)
l'aversion reflétant ''...for Violectra" (2018)for electric violin and live, diffused electronics

Alicja Pilarczyk - e-violin
Piotr Peszat - audio recording, production
Stylianos Dimou - electronics design and audio mixing

Performance "non-lieux:nie-miejsca"
24.10.2020 
Trafostacja Sztuki w Szczecinie

électro-folie (2020) • l'aversion reflétant ''...for Violectra" (2018) , is a piece for electric violin and live, diffused electronics. It is governed by the idea of percussive fragility and sliding instability. The main sound archetype is the organic interaction between wooden bow attacks and metallic thimble attacks on the strings of the e-violin. The piece gradually introduces multiple “glissando” gestures, slithers on the strings, in various speeds projecting a hidden world of granular subtleties that occur during the interaction of the thimbles on the strings. This becomes the central goal of the musical discourse while the structure is evolving.

The e-violin is one character within a virtual quadraphonic space (4 loudspeakers). The role of the electronics, primarily live, is to grasp the percussive density and transform it in the frequency and time domain. One of the roles of the live electronics is to generate a kind of “glue” that surrounds the instrumental gestures transforming them into a robust, thick and dense construction. In addition to that, the computer is responsible for the generation of multiple “e-violin identities”, instances that interact in a continuous counterpoint. One of the goals of the project is the disorientation of the audience by placing the e-violin, in unpredictable places, within the virtual quadraphonic space and blending it with the generated electronics.

électro-folie (2020) l'aversion reflétant ''...for Violectra" (2018)

Stylianos Dimou is a distinguished Greek composer renowned for his expertise in acoustic, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music. In addition to his compositional work, he is an accomplished conductor, accordionist, and electronic music improviser. Dimou’s contributions to the field have earned him numerous awards and recognitions, supported by prestigious international organizations such as the Fulbright Program, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative, Ernst Mach weltweit, Federal Ministry of Culture and Media of Austria, SWR Experimentalstudio, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and Cité Internationale des Arts.

Dimou's musical education began with advanced studies in Music Composition at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where he completed his BMus and MMus under the guidance of Prof. Christos Samaras. He further developed his compositional skills at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, earning an MA in Composition while studying with notable composers Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Robert Morris, and David Liptak, and exploring advanced electronic music with Allan Schindler "(deceased)".

In 2017-18, Dimou participated in the prestigious Cursus program at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) in Paris, where he received professional training in Composition and advanced Electronic Music, under the mentorship of Mikhail Malt. He subsequently served as a Composer and Music Researcher at the OeAD organization, affiliated with the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria.

Dimou’s dedication to artistic excellence led to his selection as Composer in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris during the fall of 2019, an opportunity extended by The Embassy of Greece. He earned his Doctoral Degree from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, where he conducted advanced artistic research and pursued graduate studies as a Dean’s Fellow. His doctoral studies were guided by Prof. George Lewis, Prof. Fred Lerdahl, Prof. Georg Friedrich Haas, and Prof. Brad Garton, specializing in Composition, Music Theory, and Computer Music.

Stylianos Dimou is a tenured Associate Professor of Composition at the Grieg Academy, University of Bergen, Norway, within the Faculty of Fine Art, Music, and Design. He specializes in both acoustic and electroacoustic music, with teaching interests that encompass Composition (acoustic, mixed electroacoustic, and acousmatic), Music Technology, Music Theory, and Analysis. Dimou teaches across undergraduate and graduate programs, fostering students' exploration of contemporary compositional practices.

Dimou's research explores the creative symbiosis between human performers and technological systems across various artistic mediums and performance practices. His work emphasizes sonic hybridity and spatial immersion, with a focus on the integration of interactive sound systems, digital signal processing, and multichannel audio. His research delves into the complex structural relationships between chromatic and microtonal aggregations in intricate sonic architectures, with a particular focus on the music of Georges Aperghis. By investigating the intersections of instrumental and electroacoustic elements, Dimou seeks to create cohesive artistic frameworks that expand the boundaries of contemporary music.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Bergen, Dimou served as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Peloponnese, Greece - Spring 2024 -, where he taught sound design, interactive sound systems, digital signal processing, and immersive audio. He also held the position of Research Assistant Professor in the Academy of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University - Spring 2021 to Fall 2024 -, where he taught Composition, Music Technology, and Electroacoustic music. His work at these institutions emphasized the integration of technology into music performance, with a particular focus on live interactivity and the creative possibilities offered by technological innovation in the compositional process.

Among Dimou’s most distinguished accolades are the Ulysses Network / IRCAM Award for Artistic Excellence (2018-2019), 1st Prize at the 2nd International Composition Competition "Amici della Musica di Cagliari," and 1st Prize at the International Prize for Composition "Luigi Nono" (3rd edition). He also won 2nd Prize in the 24th Annual Martirano Award, 1st Prize with the Audience’s Prize at the Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik (2012), and the Prize for orchestral music at the 5th [‘tactus] Young Composers Forum (2013). Dimou was a finalist for the Roche Young Commissions at the Lucerne Festival Academy (2013), judged by Pierre Boulez. His academic achievements include the Charles S. Miller Prize (2029) from Columbia University and the Wayne Brewster Barlow Prize from the Eastman School of Music.

https://stylianosdimou.com/biography

Machine learning (2018), for amplified baritone saxophone and diffused electronics

Stylianós Dimou