LIGHTNING ON SATURN is a collaboration between composer David Hahn and video artist Andreas Karaoulanis. The musical composition includes electric guitar, Moog synthesizer, and real sounds of Saturn recorded by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft which explored the planet for many years beginning in 2004.
This abstract piece considers Saturn as Solaris, a “mind-world” planet that is maybe talking to us, maybe wondering, or maybe just being friendly to our insignificance in its own gigantic passage through time.
158 and 88 years after the poet’s birth and death respectively, the Onassis Foundation invites a young Greek rapper to recite four poems written by C. P. Cavafy. Saske immerses himself in Cavafy’s lyrics, navigating the thoughts that the poet captured on paper. Next to this, the internationally acclaimed animator Andreas Karaoulanis invests these readings with image and sound, rounding off the experience.
The poet Constantine Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 17, 1863 and passed away on April 29, 1933, creating a notable coincidence in the registry: a full life circle. Already from the beginning of the 20th century, he started writing poems about love, death, violence, the intoxication of power and the failure of high ideals. The particularity of his poetry, his quirky character and his solitary living, deprived of electricity and telephone, comprised a unique case that deviated from his era’s usual standards. Slowly but steadily, his poetry started expanding both to the Egyptian communities and the Greek mainland alike, engaging fervent supporters, but also fanatic opponents.
C. P. Cavafy collected and archived his work on a systematic basis, hence creating a unique literary and personal archive. The CAVAFY ARCHIVE consists of manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies and notes by the poet.
Trailer for an audio collection of 36 music tracks created by AGF in collaboration with Greek women sound artists and singers, an animated film by Andreas Karaoulanis which accompanies the music, an homage to the Greek female poets from ancient times to nowadays.
Sound and remembering in arachnesound.
Animation by bestbefore – Andreas Karaoulanis
Produced & Commissioned by Onassis Stegi
Watch the full film (Duration: 69’) here: youtube.com/watch?v=6YLoYMmo04c
Arachnesound by AGF & Various | 2021
We recommend the use of headphones for an enhanced experience.
Credits:
Reine Linda Nyongo
Savina Yannatou
Angela Dimitrakaki
Anna Stereopoulou
Maria Papadomanolaki
Maria Arapoglou
Nicoleta Chatzopoulou
Dimitra Ioannou
Katerina Iliopoulou
Konstantina Korryvanti
Ismini Samanidou
Carsten Stabenow
Vassilis Douvitsas
Onassis Stegi acknowledgements:
Christos Carras, Music Program Curator
Christina Pitouli, Producer
The track “Katerina Gogou” features an excerpt of Katerina Gogou’s poem “Ekino pou fovame” (“What I am afraid of”), included in the collective volume Poems 1978-2002, published in Greek by Kastaniotis Editions.
The track “Katerina Iliopoulou” features an excerpt of Katerina Iliopoulou’s poem “Passage,” included in the book Every Place Only Once, and Completely, published in Greek by Melani Editions.
The track “Eftychia Panagiotou” features an excerpt of Eytychia Panayiotou’s poem “Truth”, translated by Theodoros Chiotis, included in the book Futures: poetry of the Greek crisis, published by Penned in the Margins Editions.
Larhythmix – Fear Not [Official Music Video]
https://larhythmix.bandcamp.com/album/fear-not-ep
Animation:
Patrick K.-H. (drawnsound.org/patrickkh-karaoulanis.html)
bestbefore: bestbefore.gr/blog
http://soundcloud.com/larhythmix
http://larhythmix.com/
The “eror” is inspired by a word—λάθως (lathos: in error)—written on the walls of ATHENS. In a city without people, the only survivor is a disguised pianist who repeats that same word—λάθως—over and over again. Although the word «λάθως» appears only on the walls of Athens, the work relates to any city and the “errors” of civilization/CULTURE: badly-conceived and faulty IT systems, red alerts that spread fear, the production and piling up of waste – throw-away products, images, information…
More info here: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/eror-the-pianist
Full performance here:
The work expresses the political, geographical and social instability through the digital instability – the introduction of the aleatory and the algorithmic error in the musical material, the sound and the video image. Pianistic gestures, brief references and tributes, and field recordings are transformed through a complex music computing environment. A ‘sound-geography of “error” for a city without peolpe.
COMMISSIONED AND PRODUCED BY ONASSIS STEGI
CO-PRODUCTION IRCAM—CENTRE POMPIDOU
"Trass" music video by Patrick K.-H. / bestbefore – Andreas Karaoulanis (animation) and Michael J. Schumacher / diNMachine (music), 2018.
Trass takes a motif from “Camptown Races” (Stephen Foster, 1850) and expands on it in a contrapuntal texture. The piece is scored for mixed ensemble; in this recording synthesizers were used instead, with live drums. The video adds its own layers of textural complexity and depth perspective, commenting humorously on the frenetic energy of the music.
Last month’s Scope talk of Patrick K.-H. and Bestbefore about their beautifully surrealist animations and audiovisual collaboration is online!
photo/video:by the scope sessions team (http://scopesessions.org/)
“For the video to recent single “Dbl Trbl,” the band paired with Russian artist Patrick K.-H. and Greek artist Bestbefore to create an animated accompaniment to the erratic and rhythmically skewed sounds that diNMachine has linked together on this track. Combining warped electronics with muddied cross-genre experimentation and a brittle visual aesthetic, the band looks to pull apart their influences while finding common ground between the aural and cinematic nature of their work. Whether it’s through the driving synth bass sounds of electro funk or a dramatically percussive jazz-influenced melody, the band finds a way to make all these sounds flow together in a persuasive cadence.“
read the whole piece here… nooga.com/173373/watch-dinmachine-wraps-eclectic-sounds-inside-brittle-animation-for-the-video-to-dbl-trbl-nooga-premiere/
“I composed Corporate Coitus while working as an audio technician at a company which produced background music for businesses. When the company CEO was interviewed by the on-line business journal WallStreetReporter.com, I used the audio portion of the interview as source material. I extracted the extra-verbal sounds—the “ahs” and “ums” and intakes of breath—for use in this new piece. The title of Corporate Coitus came about as I feel that sex and business are always somehow connected. I heard the piece as an imaginary sex act gathering intensity to a climax followed by a gradual de-tumescence.” David Hahn
Still images from Black Flow project
Morphing landscapes and electroacoustic environments
An audio/visual performance with floor projection (10x10m)
@ Kühlhaus Berlin 27-02-2015
Floros Floridis: reeds, live-electronics
Andreas Karaoulanis: animation-programming
Patrick K.-H.: animation
