New Music (Unlisted-2)

Mixed Electroacoustic Music

contemporary music

momentum "I": death & escape (2019)
for bass flute and live electronics 

Live recording
20th Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik
April 26th, 2019
Weimar, Germany 

The piece was written for and heartily dedicated to Carin Levine.

momentum "I": death & escape, for bass flute and live electronics (2019)

"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)

NOUVELLES AVENTURES CICLE – KONZERTHAUS WIEN

Berio-Saal
Wiener Konzerthaus
Friday, April 22, 2022

Schallfeld Ensemble
Leonhard Garms, Conductor

The octet version of "les instances" is projecting an electrified sound world emerging from the musical synergies and the coexistence of an amplified ensemble with a synthesized, electronic soundscape. A continuum of interchangeable drives it, phrasal collages comprised of distinct sonic and rhythmical structures, both in the acoustic and the electronic parts. The structure is formulated by repetitive blocks and timbral constructs that engage horizontally and vertically (harmonically) and eventually forge the behavior and the dramaturgy of the music. At the core of my creative thinking lies the notion of repetitive exhaustion and dissolution of sonic material in frameworks of organic sound complexity. I am deeply interested in the impact of recursion on our perception of details and musical events at a micro and macro time level. The piece is heartily dedicated to George E. Lewis.

Les instances - octet version, for amplified ensemble and diffused, synthesised sounds (2019/20)

in dysto (2023)
for amplified trio: saxophone(s), percussion, piano - and midi keyboard - and electronics 

Ex Sentia Ensemble
Miguel Fernández (saxophone)
Jacob Mason (piano)
Santiago Villar (percussion)

Live recording:
Theater Pavillon Luzern – Switzerland
November 14, 2023

"in dysto" is an extended, mixed electroacoustic composition that explores the concept of sonic hybridity through recursive processes of structural de/re-construction. Drawing inspiration from the resonance profiles of both natural materials and synthesized resonances, the work delves into the realm of unpredictable resonant behaviors. By merging resonance and behavior, a unified concept is formed that mirrors the aesthetic and technical characteristics inherent in the electroacoustic elements, thereby resulting in an electrifying sonic experience.

Through meticulous construction and dissolution, conducted at both micro and macro levels, self-referential blocks of sonic action are harmoniously reconciled, ultimately giving rise to a dystopian landscape characterized by emergence and collision. The deliberate utilization of recursion and repetition serves to push the boundaries of the electro-acoustic material and the synergies observed during performance, while subjectively alluding to a transformative shift from utopia to dystopia.

Premiere performance:
Impuls Festival 2023
Ex-Sentia ensemble
MUMUTH – György-Ligeti-Saal
August 3, 2023, Graz, Austria

Other performances:
the “METABIOME” project, concert series:
Benr Aula Progr, Bern – Switzerland, November 15, 2023.
Theater Pavillon Luzern – Switzerland, November 14, 2023.
Centre Le Phénix, Fribourg – Switzerland, October 20, 2023.
Basel Ackermannshof, Basel – Switzerland, October 19, 2023.

The piece was commissioned by the ex-Sentia ensemble

in dysto, for amplified saxophone(s), percussion, piano - & midi - and electronics (2023)

Arrangement of Terry Riley's virtuoso A Rainbow in Curved Air, by Anthony Fiumara and Arnold Marinissen, performed by Lunapark ensemble.

A Rainbow In Curved Air (arrangement)

loswoelen is geïnspireerd op de bundel De Schaamsoort van Paul Demets. 
Live uitgezonden op NPOklassiek Opium, tijdens de Grote Poëzieprijs uitreiking op 24 april 2025 in Rotterdam, uitgereikt aan Paul Demets.

Luister gehele uitzending terug op : https://www.npoklassiek.nl/uitzendingen/opium/9bb984c9-4d7e-43c5-b0d5-b8080f23f0cc/2025-04-24-opium

loswoelen

loswoelen (geïnspireerd op De Schaamsoort van Paul Demets)

Jean-Louis ROBERT (1948-1979) : Le Cerisier éclaté (1973)
Claude Ledoux, piano
Festival d'Olne - 1991
Enregistrement ©Festival d'Olne

Jean-Louis ROBERT : Le Cerisier- Claude Ledoux, piano

Desk recording of the most silent piece of music during Kaltern Pop 2015. In the church during the show by Stargaze. Played by Aart Strootman - guitar and Ausiàs Garrigós Morant - clarinet.

Variations_on a theme by Radiohead (excerpt)

Solo trio --> standard-modell (Antoine Alerini, Noam Bierstone & Joshua Hyde)
Ensemble --> Orchestre des Lauréats du CNSMDP
Conductor --> Laurent Cuniot

"… Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, ni dans les opérations de l’art, ni dans celles de la nature, et l’on peut poser en principe que, dans tout opération, il y a une égale quantité de matière avant et après l’opération ; que la qualité et la quantité des principes est la même, et qu’il n’y a que des changements, des modifications…”. 
Extract from “Traité élémentaire de chimie” (1777) - Antoine Lavoisier



and matter was (not) perfectly conserved [2015] • for trio, ensemble & electronics

VITA NOVA
chamber opera for alto, baroque violin, viola da gambe & harpsichord
Alto: Ayelet Harpaz
Baroque violin: Anna McMichael
Viola da Gamba: Ricardo Rodriguez
Harpsichord: Vincent Ranger
Theatre direction & form Berend Strik



Fragment aria from VITA NOVA

"where the murmurs die" - for guitar & orchestra
[HEADPHONES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]

Natalya Makovskaya - Guitar
Orchestre des Lauréats du CNSMDP
Philippe Aïche - conductor

where the murmurs die [2016] • for guitar & orchestra

trace - écart - for harp, electric guitar, cymbalum, double bass & electronics

Ensemble C Barré
Eva Debonne - harp
Cyril Dupuy - cymbalum
Thomas Keck - guitar
Charlotte Testu - double bass

Mónica Gil & Rudy Romeur - sound engineering

Premiered @ Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije 2017
Recorded @ GMEM Marseille

trace - écart [2017] • for harp, electric guitar, cymbalum, double bass & electronics

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

« ... What would I do without this world faceless incurious
where to be lasts but an instant where every instant
spills in the void the ignorance of having been
without this wave where in the end
body and shadow together are engulfed … »

(Samuel Beckett)

FRANCISCO ALVARADO
corps et ombre ensemble s'engloutissent [2018]

Florentin Ginot - double bass

Ensemble LINEA
Adam Starkie - clarinet / bass clarinet
Marie Andrée Joerger - accordion
Victor Hocquet - percussion
Ieva Dudaite - prepared piano
Marco Fusi - violin
Elodie Gaudet - viola
Elsa Dorbath - cello

Claire Levacher - conductor

Éditions Durand

Premiered @ Opéra National du Rhin / Festival Musica 2018
Aide à l'écriture d'une oeuvre originale du ministère de la Culture 2018

---------------------------------------------

Taken from Samuel Beckett’s « textes pour ne rien dire », the quote « corps et ombre ensemble s’engloutissent » was an inspiration to stablish a body/shadow type of relationship, in three different layers in this piece. The relationship between the double bass player and its instrument, between the soloist instrument and the ensemble and finally, between the double bass sonorities and the musical material construction, through them.

	What most interested me in this Beckettian image is that shadow no long exists as a reflection of the body, damned to follow each given dictated gesture. By engulfing themselves, they are at the same level, trying to annihilate one another, “pills in the void”.

	I used this idea to elaborate the musical material. One could say that the double bass works as the body. Indeed, I started by composing the double bass line and by making spectral analysis of the sounds of this line (using informatic tools). I could extract notes, harmonic champs, rhythms, in short, a very rich musical reservoir that allowed me to write the ensemble part afterwards – the shadow. Nevertheless, during the piece, the ensemble will emancipate, proposing new sonorities that will be used by the double bass, gradually alternating roles. This ambiguity concerning the source, will be established from the beginning of the piece, that starts with an ensemble opening, that we may consider firstly as the “body”, but which is actually composed by sounds that the double bass will play later on, in a kind of anticipated consequence.

	The body/shadow relationship is also used to manage the instrumental density of the score, in the soloist, ensemble and tutti passages of the piece. Even if the double bass is clearly presented as the soloist, it is often delicately doubled by other instruments. It will melt sometimes with the ensemble or it will clearly play as the shadow of another instrument.

	Finally, the most visible body/shadow connection is the one between the double bass player and its instrument. Actually, we may have the impression of seeing two dancing bodies. Even if it is the player who drives the instrument, the last one, being considerably big, impose its rhythm, its cadence, a sound inertia.
As this implicit choreography evolves, one may ask the question: which on is the body, which one the shadow? And finally, which one is engulfing the other one?

corps et ombre ensemble s'engloutissent [2018] • for doublebass & ensemble

OPTICAL FLOW 1.1.1.1. 1.1.1. Perc.1, Perc.2, Hrp, Pno, 1.1.1.1.1 and electronics.
Premiered in April 2013 at CNSMDP, conducted by Robert HP Platz.

OPTICAL FLOW [2013] • for ensemble & electronics

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