Two previously unreleased recordings from one of Greece’s pioneers of electroacoustic music. Stephanos Vassiliadis (1933 – 2004) founded in 1979, together with Iannis Xenakis, the Contemporary Music Research Center (CMRC) and remained its director until his death in 2004. His largely undocumented artistic output consists of works for theatre productions, mostly unfinished or fragmented electroacoustic pieces, as well as numerous children songs. Vassiliadis was also a significant pedagogue and some of his initiatives have reformed the musical education system of Greece.
“En Pyri” (1973).
Recorded in 1976 by Andreas Rodousakis on double-bass and the composer himself on the mixing desk of Radio Sweden Studio in Stockholm, En Pyri presents a previously unreleased version of Stephanos Vassiliadis’s composition for tape and double-bass written in the memory of Jani Christou. En Pyri was composed three years after a multi-fatal car crash that caused the untimely deaths of Anastasia Vassiliadi (first wife of Stephanos Vassiliadis), Jani Christou (acclaimed composer, close friend and collaborator of Stephanos Vassiliadis) and of Christous’s wife Theresia Christou Choremi. The title En Pyri, translating as In Fire, comes from the First Epistle of the Corinthians “..for the day will disclose it, because it is revealed in fire..”, referring to that what remains after death, or in the composer’s words: “man’s song-creation is the only thing that can withstand and overcome destruction”.
The fire is clearly pictured during a particularly long climax starting midway to the end of the piece. The dramatic aspect of this spectrally dense section is even stronger during live shows, with the performer centre-stage fiercely playing double-bass, but failing to be heard over the full-range audio of the 8-track tape. This staged element of En Pyri is inevitably lost with the reproduction of this recording, but the audio alone carries a heavy load. Sounds as if written out of total need and almost physical necessity to deal with death and loss. At the end of the composition, while the performer is still onstage, a quiet tone is “revealed” and held for a few minutes signifying that what remains; that what is “revealed in fire”.
“Bacchae” (1974).
Bacchae was written for a production of Euripide’s tragedy The Bacchae directed [and choreographed] by the distinguished choreographer Zouzou Nikoloudi. This particular play was part of the University of California Intercampus Cultural Exchange Program and was never performed in Greece. From the 25th of September to the 3rd of October 1974, it was staged seven times in different campuses of the University of California (Santa Barbara, Irvine, San Diego, Riverside, Davis, Santa Cruz, Berkeley). These seven shows were to become the only occasions this composition was presented to the public.
Bacchae seems to be Vassiliadi’s first attempt in bringing together his background in electroacoustic music with the music he grew up to. He beautifully achieves this by juxtaposing modular synthesizer tones with samples of greek traditional music from his collection of archival recordings. These two elements ebb and flow throughout the composition, at times becoming indistinguishable from each other. The manner in which Vassiliadis mixes acoustic and synth drones together resembles electronic music of following decades. Developed gradually over a duration of 23 minutes of uninterrupted and texturally thick audio, Bacchae is a kind of proto-ambient, folk-drone electroacoustic piece, luckily rediscovered in the archipelago of recorded music.
This release was made possible thanks to the invaluable support of some close persons to Stephanos Vassiliadis.
Mastering from the original tapes by Nikos Lavdas at Kiwi, Athens, 2017. Cover photo by S. K. (close-up photo of Stephanos Vassiliadis). Insert artwork by Stephanos Andreou. Design and layout by We Are Still Bold and Beautiful.