Frogs Excerpt 1

for clarinet, tape and live electronics. For Esther Lamneck.
“Seven Spaces of Ether” has been commissioned by Esther Lamneck, a dear friend and great clarinetist. It consists of seven real and/or imaginary sonic spaces  that blend the sound of the clarinet with electronic textures and gestures into an ethereal soundscape.

Seven Spaces Of Ether

Originally for 8 channels. Commissioned by Musiques et Recherches.
“Portrait d’une manifestante” (8 channels) is a sonic portrait of a woman in red caught in the midst of a protest march. The work was commissioned by Musiques et Recherches and premiered at the Festival Espace du Son 2014. Many thanks to Esther Lamneck, Andreas Mniestris and Giorgos Stavridis for the clarinet, saxophone and percussion samples and to Terry Vakirtzoglou, Giorgos Mizithras and Olga Vassiou for their voices. The piece was finalist at the Metamorphoses 2016 competition in Brussels.

Metamorphoses 2016

Portrait d'une Manifestante (stereo version)

Commissioned by Visiones Sonoras Festival CMMAS (Mexico).
The piece is an imaginary abstract soundscape of a crystal glass. The sounds that have been used for the composition derive from hits on the surface of a crystal glass and co-exist with some recordings of a saxophone, a piano and a breath. Thanks to Andreas Mniestris for the saxophone recordings, to Maria Metaxaki for the piano, to Olga Vassiou for the breath and to Victoria Martini for the glass. Instant of a crystal glass has been commissioned by the Visiones Sonoras 2007 Festival in Mexico.

Lustro 01-CMMAS

Instant Of A Crystal Glass

Composed for the Ionian Act dance company. Originally for 8 channels.

9 Desirer

6 Natasha's Monologue

5 Blind Man's Buff

Composed for A Small Step Urban Dance Festival.

1. Runaway

For Beatriz Ferreyra.
BF is a short birthday present of the 80th anniversary of Beatriz Ferreyra. Memories of her encounter as well as fragments and words from an interview of the composer at INA/GRM served as material for the composition.

BF (pour Beatriz Ferreyra)

Li Po (701-762) was one of the most important romantic poets during the Tang dynasty. “Li Po” is a comment on his poetry and, at the same time, on the traditional Chinese music for dizi flute and the great Chinese interpreters which continuously extend the timbral attributes of this instrument. The flute contributes to the textural development, the gestural action and the spatial articulation of Li Po, either as transformed pre-recorded material, or by means of real-time algorithmic treatment within SuperCollider’s environment.
Flutes: Ria Georgiadi, Theodoros Lotis

Flute Dimensions

Li Po

Alexia's Dance

3 Duet

2 Frog

1 Insects

“When I look through the density of the water, at the paving in the depths of a swimming pool, I do not see it in spite of the water and its reflections. On the contrary, I see it through the reflections, because of them. If these deformities, these stripes of the sun were not there; if I were glancing at the paving’s geometry without the interference of this flesh, then I would stop regarding it the way it really is; there, where it really is: beyond every identical space.” — Maurice Merleau-Ponty, L’œil et l’esprit (Eye and Mind), 1964.
The sonic world of Underwater Theories combines electronic sounds created by software synthesizers, with acoustic instruments, such as human voice and doublebass treated by the software Max/MSP. Although my original intention was to explore and emphasize the “rivalry” between electronic and acoustic, or “concrete,” sounds, surprisingly, these two sonic worlds were blended together in a concordant way, creating sonic environments where no confrontations between artificial and natural exist.
Underwater Theories was realized in 2002 at the composer’s studio in London (England, UK) and premiered on October 20, 2004 during the 11th International Acousmatic Festival L’Espace du son (Brussels, Belgium). Underwater Theories was a finalist at the 3rd Biennal Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2004). It has been recorded on the compact disc Epoque de l'Eau and Métamorphoses 2004.
(From electrocd.com)

Epoque de l'eau

Theories Underwater

Shadows are the dark faces of light, the unexplored view of reality. Obscure or transparent, threatening or airy, a shadow always suggests motion. During the compositional process of this piece, I was exploring with great fascination the kinetic possibilities of shadows as well as the different types of gestural behaviour that could create their motion. Some of the main tools for simulating the complex kinetic behaviours of shadows is the glissandi and portamenti, which dominate the piece and serve as the vehicle that guides the ear within the space frame. Long, superimposed trajectories converse and are often opposed to micro-kinetic structures. The generative idea throughout the piece is Heracletus’ principle of the opposed duality. According to the Greek philosopher, an opposed duality contains two poles. Although seemingly opposing, these poles are interdependent and mutually connected. Their inherent and dynamic unity are the consequence of counterbalancing forces and kinetic behaviours. Light and shadow are the two poles of an opposed duality. The continuous transformation from light to shadow creates the delicate harmony of the piece.

Shadows was realized at the studio of City University in London (England, UK) and premiered in 2000 at the City University. Shadows was awarded honourable mentions at the 4th Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (CIMESP ’01, Brazil), and the 22th Luigi Russolo International Competition (Varese, Italy, 2000). It was finalist at the Concurso Internacional ART’S XXI in 2001 in Valencia (Spain), and at the 28th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2001). Thanks to Eleni Mpratsou for her voice and Rupert Dejonge for his doublebass.
(electrocd.com)

Shadows

Premiere: April 28, 2004, Sonorities Festival, Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) — Queen’s University (Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK)

An image of a deserted vast area. A south wind approaches the listener / viewer. The wind lies on the sands. It forms sandbanks and carries along the sand grains, like clouds drifting away, and boats floating out to sea. Sand hills surround the listener. The technique of granular synthesis has been used vastly in order to create sonic environments, which imitate natural environments, such as the wind, and conjure up the image of sand grains blowing.

A South Wind Will Bring the Sand was realized in 2002 at the studio of City University in London (England, UK) and the composer’s studio, and premiered by Denis Smalley on April 28, 2004 at the Sonorities Festival in the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Belfast (Northen Ireland, UK). It was awarded an honourable mention at the 24th Luigi Russolo International Competition (Varese, Italy, 2002).
(electrocd.com)

A South Wind Will Bring The Sand

To Annette Vande Gorne

- Commission: Musiques & Recherches
- Premiere: October 2, 2002, L’Espace du son — M&R (Brussels, Belgium)

In classic mythology, and even in more ancient legends, sibyls were female prophets whose ecstatic utterances were inspired by Apollo. According to those legends, some sibyls could interpret dreams, and others could make their voices heard after death. Their oracles were taken seriously and with special care. Virgil, in his Aeneid (book 6, 42-51), describes the Cumaean Sibylla, the most famous of all sibyls, thus: “She changes her features, and the colour of her countenance; her hair springs up erect, her bosom heaves and pants, her wild heart beats violently, the foam gathers on her lips and her voice is terrible.” Their simplest words were covered up by the most complicate and misleading ecstatic screams. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for someone to understand the meaning of the oracles.
When Annette Vande Gorne asked me to compose a multi-channel piece, the idea of covering up simple musical ideas into complicate and obscure textural morphologies was pestering my mind. Sibylla’s Voice uses heavily treated instrumental (violin) and vocal recordings, in order to produce a strange ‘vocal’ feel (due to convolution between the violin and the vocal sounds). It is not a piece about movement in terms of displacement between loud speakers. It is rather about the co-existence of diverse spatial environments. It is also about how the same simple musical elements, an interval of a second for example, behave under different and constantly changing and contrasting spatial environments. Like Sibylla’s words, those elements are sometimes covered up by thick and often obscure spectral textures. People in our days also use to seek advice from ‘sibyls.’ It is possibly the unknown and unforeseen future that lent colour to their prophecies.

Sibylla’s Voice was realized in 2001 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium) and the studio of City University in London (England, UK) and premiered on October 2, 2002 during the 9th International Acousmatic Festival L’Espace du son (Brussels, Belgium). The piece was commissioned by Musiques & Recherches. Thanks to Eleni Mpratsou for her voice. The present version is a stereo mix of the original 8-track piece. Sibylla’s Voice was a finalist at the 2nd Biennal Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2002). It has been recorded on the compact disc Métamorphoses 2002 (MR 2002, 2003).
(electrocd.com)

Sibylla's Voice

To Martha
La Mer is made up of two independent movements: La mer bleue, and La mer profonde.
The hum of the bees treated electronically creates the waves of the sea. A string quartet, also treated, reminds the light on the surface and the liquid fluency. La Mer expresses the joy and the purity of the water and proposes a listening in two levels. The first one is an imaginary perception of the sea. Serene or stormy: the sun sparkles on the water, the colours-frequencies become blurred during the descent, the darkness of the profound… The second is a symbolic perception: the deep of the sea is the cemetery for the shipwrecks and the image of the fecundity, the passage to Hades and the road to new discoveries.

La mer [The Sea] was realized in 1996 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium) and premiered in June 1997 in Mons (Belgium). It was awarded an Honorable mention at the 1st Biennal Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2000) and was finalist at 27th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2000).

Premiere: June 1997, Concert, Mons (Belgium)
(electrocd.com)

La Mer Bleue

To Martha
La Mer is made up of two independent movements: La mer bleue, and La mer profonde.
The hum of the bees treated electronically creates the waves of the sea. A string quartet, also treated, reminds the light on the surface and the liquid fluency. La Mer expresses the joy and the purity of the water and proposes a listening in two levels. The first one is an imaginary perception of the sea. Serene or stormy: the sun sparkles on the water, the colours-frequencies become blurred during the descent, the darkness of the profound… The second is a symbolic perception: the deep of the sea is the cemetery for the shipwrecks and the image of the fecundity, the passage to Hades and the road to new discoveries.

La mer [The Sea] was realized in 1996 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium) and premiered in June 1997 in Mons (Belgium). It was awarded an Honorable mention at the 1st Biennal Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2000) and was finalist at 27th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2000).

Premiere: June 1997, Concert, Mons (Belgium).
(electrocd.com)

La Mer Profonde

Arioso Dolente / Beethoven Op. 110 is based on Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, and more specifically on the third movement, which provided all the sonic material for the composition. The arioso dolente, which carries out the main melodic themes, is the epicentre of the third movement. Although I have largely maintained the harmonic structure and even the melodic profiles of the movement, the electroacoustic piece remains a comment on the original piano sonata rather than an analytical approach to Beethoven’s music. I was more interested in the spiritual aspects of the sonata. Beethoven had just rebounded from a period of illness. His recovery sparked his creative forces resulting in the genesis of Op. 110. Both the joy and the melancholy of life are merged in this movement as an omnipresent duality. While composing my musical comment on Beethoven’s adagio I tried to enhance this duality by means of spectral transparency and luminosity which often contrast and converse with textural obscurity and opacity. The main melodic theme of the original arioso dolente appears in the middle of the piece, remote, magnified and utterly stretched in time.

Arioso Dolente / Beethoven Op. 110 was realized in 2002 at the studio of City University in London (England, UK) and the composer’s studio, and premiered on June 1, 2002, during the festival Intorno a Beethoven in Cagliari (Sardinia). The piece was commissioned by Amici della Musica di Cagliari (Sardinia). Thanks to Maria Metaxaki for the piano recordings, and to Lucio Garau for initiating the commission. Arioso Dolente / Beethoven Op. 110 was awarded the 1st Prize (UK Section) at the 2003 transatlantic competition Jeu de temps/Times Play and has been recorded on the compact discs Epoque de l’Eau and Cache 2003 CA+UK. 
(electrocd.com)

Arioso Dolente/Beethoven op.110

Theodoros Lotis studied the guitar, flute, music analysis, electroacoustic composition and Fine Arts in Greece, Belgium and the UK. His music has been performed at festivals and conferences in Europe, Australia, America and Asia, and has received a number of awards and distinctions at Bourges, Sculpted Sound Composers Competition, Metamorphoses, Luigi Russolo, CIMESP and and Jeu de temps / Times Play. He was awarded the first prize at the Concours International de Spatialisation pour l’Interprétation des Ouevres Acousmatiques by Musiques et Recherches, in Brussels. He has done commissioned work for Musiques et Recherches (Belgium, 1997, 2000, 2014), Sculpted Sound Composers Competition (UK, 2000), Amici della Musica di Cagliari (Italy, 2001), the festival Visiones Sonoras (Mexico, 2007), the clarinetist Esther Lamneck and many dance and theatre companies. 
He has completed a Ph.D. in Music at the City University, London, with Denis Smalley, thanks to grants from the British Academy (Arts and Humanities Research Board), and the Foundation A.S. Onassis. 
Theodoros Lotis has been teaching electroacoustic composition and analysis at Goldsmiths College, University of London, the Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and Universities in Europe and America as invited composer. He is Assistant Professor at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. He is founding member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology. His music has been released by Empreintes Digitales (https://www.electrocd.com/en/album/2357/Theodore_Lotis/Époque_de_l_eau).

Theodoros Lotis

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