Tectonics Athens 2019

Friday 7 June | Former Athens Stock Exchange | 21:00

Saturday 8 June | Onassis Stegi & Former Athens Stock Exchange | 18:00

Sunday 9 June | Onassis Stegi | 18:00

From music trasher and activist Dror Feiler, to Blixa Bargeld, the iconic persona of Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; from the spectral music of Rumanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu, to the electronic beat of electronic music pioneers Matmos, music festival Tectonics Athens 2019 comes to Athens to vibrate Onassis Stegi and the Former Athens Stock Exchange, from 7 to 9 June.

Radical conductor Ilan Volkov brings this festival to Athens for the second time, which aims to redefine the role of the Symphonic Orchestra in the 21st century while bringing together various ways of making music. Improvisation, contemporary composition, sound art, traditional music, electronic noise, and song all meet, collide, and complement one another in a three-day festival of tectonic pressures.

Devoted to discovering and revealing valuable works and composers of yesterday and today, Ilan Volkov proposes an interpretation of music that crosses genres, epochs, and geography. Maintaining a constant reference to avant-garde movements and trends of the previous century, such as Fluxus from the 1960s and ’70s, the indeterminacy and randomness of John Cage, site-specific works, electroacoustic composition and no wave music, the second Athens version of Tectonics explores the meaning of “here and now” in live musical art.

Credits

Concept – Conducting – Curated by: Ilan Volkov

Co-curated by: Michalis Moschoutis

Production Management: Christina Pitouli

The participation of Lemur (NO), Nathalie Forget (FR), Tetsuya Umeda (JP), Mik Quantius (DE), Zombie Penguin & the Glory Holes (GR) and The Prudence Tapes (GR) is supported by the INTERFACES project, co-funded by the "Creative Europe Programme" of the European Union.

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

Program

FRIDAY 7 JUNE

21:00 | Former Athens Stock Exchange

“Out of the Dark” (new site-specific work)*: Lemur (NO)

“Outremer” (1969): Bernard Parmegiani (FR) Nathalie Forget (FR): ondes Martenot

Tetsuya Umeda (JP)

SATURDAY 8 JUNE

18:00 | Onassis Stegi | Upper Stage

Nathalie Forget (FR) presents the electronic musical instrument ondes Martenot

19:00 | Onassis Stegi | Exhibition Hall -1

S.L.Á.T.U.R. (IS)

20:00 | Onassis Stegi | Foyer +4

Sarah Kenchington (UK)

20:30 | Onassis Stegi | Main Stage

The Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov (IL)

“Epexēgēsis” ** (2018-2019): Dror Feiler (IL/SE) Blixa Bargeld: Vocals, Dror Feiler (IL/SE): Reeds and live electronics, Ghayath Almadhoun (PS/SE): Text

"Siheung Tablatures" * (2019): Eyvind Kang (Orchestra composition), Jessika Kenney (Vocal composition) Jessika Kenney (US): Voice, Eyvind Kang (US): Setar

“Tropic” (1968): Yannis Ioannidis (GR)

“Magna Ipsum Heimat Ut Enim Minen Vacuum” (2014-2015): Georgia Koumará (GR)

“Reverb Music” *** (2015-2019): James Alexandropoulos-McEwan (GR/UK)

22:30 | Onassis Stegi | Upper Stage

Sofia Labropoulou: Kanun (GR) & Stratos Bichakis: Electronics (GR) Ánde Somby (NO)

00:30 | Former Athens Stock Exchange

Mik Quantius (DE), Zombie Penguin & the Glory Holes (GR), The Prudence Tapes (GR)

SUNDAY 9 JUNE

18:00 | Onassis Stegi | Upper Stage

“Great Piano Trilogy – Breakwater, Response, Magic” * (2019): Panayiotis Kokoras (GR) “Arioso for two pianos, one pianist” * (2019): Andreas Levisianos (GR) “PM” * (2019): Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris (GR) “Wie ein Hauch” * (2019): Yiorgis Sakellariou (GR) Lorenda Ramou (GR): Piano

19:15 | Onassis Stegi | Exhibition Hall -1

S.L.Á.T.U.R (IS): concert / children’s workshop presentation

20:00 | Onassis Stegi | Foyer +4

Sarah Kenchington (UK)

20:30 | Onassis Stegi | Main Stage

Jessika Kenney (US)

“For Nathalie Forget” *: Iancu Dumitrescu (RO) Eyvind Kang (US): Viola, Nathalie Forget (FR): ondes Martenot, Octav Avramescu (RO) & Iancu Dumitrescu (RO): Piano

Matmos (US)

22:30 | Onassis Stegi | Upper Stage

AMM (UK) Eddie Prévost: Drums, Keith Rowe: Guitar, John Tilbury: Piano

* world premiere

** world premiere on 24 May at Tectonics Stavanger

*** world premiere of new arrangement for orchestra

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FRIDAY 7 JUNE

Former Athens Stock Exchange | 21:00

The Former Athens Stock Exchange turns into a stage to host three controversial concerts. Lemur’s latest project “Out of the Dark” casts a spell over the darkness and promises to light up the night with experimental music. Nathalie Forget performs with a rare electronic music instrument. Tetsuya Umeda from Japan takes our breath away, with a cross media performance.

“Out of the Dark” (new site-specific work)*: Lemur (NO)

The world premiere of a site-specific work created for the former Athens Stock Exchange by the Norwegian ensemble Lemur. “Out of the Dark” is Lemur’s latest piece re-contextualizing major works from the contemporary and experimental music canon. Using their peculiar blend of improvisation and composition as a mirror, the Lemur ensemble transform titles and concepts into new and original works. The spaces of the once-mighty building on Sofokleous Street host an arrangement inspired by Pauline Oliveros’ score from 1998. Tectonics Festival audiences will be surrounded by both the musicians and a tailor-made sound system.

“Outremer” (1969): Bernard Parmegiani (FR) Nathalie Forget (FR): ondes Martenot

Bernard Parmegiani (1927-2013) was one of the most important composers of electronic acousmatic music of the last 100 years. A member of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), a collaborator of Iannis Xenakis, and a major musical influence on Aphex Twin, Autechre and Keith Fullerton Whitman, Parmegiani wrote everything from film music to the jingle heard before every announcement at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for 35 years. The ondes Martenot soloist Nathalie Forget has worked with leading symphony orchestras, as well as with Radiohead and Faust. At the former Athens Stock Exchange, audiences will get the chance to hear this rare electronic music instrument created by Marice Martenot in 1928 played live, in a performance of the work “Outremer” (1969) for onde Martenot and magnetic tape.

Tetsuya Umeda (JP)

At times, ordinary materials – such as ropes, cans and plastic bottles – present unexpected aspects of expansion and occurrence in the viewer, caused by the combination of the simple effects of natural phenomena such as gravity and centrifugal force; the artist does not manipulate them in any specific way. Every single ray of breathtaking light, every sudden accidental explosion, every odd sound can be attributed to, and seen simply to be engaging in parts of its everyday behavior. Thus the boundaries of what we are watching and listening to become blurred and our familiar surroundings, potential accidents and audience behavior become merged as part of the performance. This develops into the realization of a unique experience of the performance, where the ordinary and the extraordinary cross and coincide only in that moment and in that space.

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

SATURDAY 8 JUNE

Tectonics Athens 2019, Day 2. A rare instrument, a human-powered semi-mechanical orchestra, a contemporary Symphony Orchestra, sounds from the distant past of Scandinavia and an underground music experience, promise to move the Athenian Tectonic Plates. Not with a bang but with a whimper.

Onassis Stegi | 18:00 | Upper Stage

Nathalie Forget (FR) presents the electronic musical instrument ondes Martenot

This year, Tectonics audiences will get the chance to see an early electronic musical instrument, invented just a few years after the Theremin, up close. Nathalie Forget, considered the world’s leading ondes Martenot soloist, will be presenting this unusual instrument, explaining how it works to the audience, and performing a few extracts from works written for the ondes Martenot.

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

Onassis Stegi | 19:00 | Exhibition Hall -1

S.L.Á.T.U.R. (IS)

This composer collective from Reykjavik will be transforming the Onassis Stegi Exhibition Hall into a creative studio, and inviting audiences in for a series of experimental performances. Homemade constructions, projections, everyday objects and sound experiments with a touch of humor are the fundamental elements of S.L.Á.T.U.R.’s collective and personal output.

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

Onassis Stegi | 20:00 | Foyer +4

Sarah Kenchington (UK)

Sarah Kenchington’s human-powered semi-mechanical orchestras often give the impression that it is the instruments themselves playing the music, rather than the musician playing the instruments. The English musician and visual artist’s constructs can be found in the Onassis Stegi Fourth Floor Foyer throughout the festival. On Saturday and Sunday at 20:00, audiences will be able to enjoy Sarah Kenchington’s unique performances.

Admission is free, on a first come first served basis | Entrance tickets will be available 1 hour before the event

Onassis Stegi | 20:30 | Main Stage

The Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov (IL)

“Epexēgēsis” ** (2018-2019): Dror Feiler (IL/SE) Blixa Bargeld: Vocals, Dror Feiler (IL/SE): Reeds and live electronics, Ghayath Almadhoun (PS/SE): Text

"Siheung Tablatures" * (2019): Eyvind Kang (Orchestra composition), Jessika Kenney (Vocal composition) Jessika Kenney (US): Voice, Eyvind Kang (US): Setar

“Tropic” (1968): Yannis Ioannidis (GR)

“Magna Ipsum Heimat Ut Enim Minen Vacuum” (2014-2015): Georgia Koumará (GR)

“Reverb Music” *** (2015-2019): James Alexandropoulos-McEwan (GR/UK)

Symphonic music always plays a central role at each Tectonics Festival. This year, the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the festival’s founder and artistic director Ilan Volkov, will perform an adventurous program that draws upon a particularly broad range of music: from the world premiere of a work by Yannis Ioannidis (written in 1968) to the gentle tones of the setar and the harsh electronic sounds of Dror Feiler and Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten), and from the texts of the Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun to a work by Georgia Koumará based on the idea of “a national anthem for a country that does not exist”. Once again this year, Ilan Volkov’s aim is to redefine the very notion of a symphony orchestra, and to allow for the co-existence of varied musical trends, practices and traditions.

Onassis Stegi | 22:30 | Upper Stage

Sofia Labropoulou: Kanun (GR) & Stratos Bichakis: Electronics (GR)

A unique collaboration that brings traditional music elements together with contemporary electronic music and improvisation. Two major musicians of the Greek scene in their first live appearance together as a duo.

Ánde Somby (NO)

Ánde Somby continues the pre-Christian traditions of the Sámi people of northern Scandinavia as one of the few yoikers left in the world. He draws inspiration from the shamanistic belief that a person can transform into an animal and back into a person.

Tickets 3 — 5 €

00:30 | Former Athens Stock Exchange

Mik Quantius (DE)

The solo appearances of the lead vocalist of the German krautrock group Embryo are completely unpredictable, and known from their disarming directness. Making use of highly simple means and a humorous outlook, Mik Quantius shifts between music and performance.

Zombie Penguin & the Glory Holes (GR)

From the Athenian underground scene to the Athens Stock Exchange. Zombie Penguin & the Glory Holes present an audiovisual performance prepared specially for this year’s Tectonics. The mutant penguin – an activist and employee of Antarctic Oik – makes its unexpected appearance at the former Athens Stock Exchange.

The Prudence Tapes (GR)

The Prudence Tapes duo bring the night to a close with a powerful DJ set.

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

SUNDAY 9 JUNE

Celebrated pianist Lorenda Ramou, controversial collective S.L.Á.T.U.R from Island, Sarah Kenchington from United Kingdom, completely personal musician Jessica Kenney, legendary composer Iancu Dumitrescu, ingenious band Matmos and experimental musicians AMM, bring to Onassis Stegi the music of here and now.

Onassis Stegi | 18:00 | Upper Stage

Lorenda Ramou performs new works for piano and electronics by Panayiotis Kokoras, Andreas Levisianos, Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris, and Yiorgis Sakellariou

Renowned pianist Lorenda Ramou performs four works for electronics and piano written specially for this year’s Tectonics Festival. From music for “prepared piano” to works of an intensely theatrical nature, and from contemporary electronic acousmatic music to improvisation.

Lorenda Ramou (Greece): Piano “Great Piano Trilogy – Breakwater, Response, Magic” * (2019): Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece) “Arioso for two pianos, one pianist” * (2019): Andreas Levisianos (Greece) “PM” * (2019): Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris (Greece) “Wie ein Hauch” * (2019): Yiorgis Sakellariou (Greece)

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

Onassis Stegi | 19:15 | Exhibition Hall -1

S.L.Á.T.U.R (Iceland): concert / children’s workshop presentation

This composer collective from Reykjavik will be transforming the Onassis Stegi Exhibition Hall into a creative studio and, in collaboration with a group of children, creates a performance open to Tectonics audiences. The children, together with S.L.Á.T.U.R., will be performing new compositions through the use of everyday objects, homemade musical instruments and electronic equipment.

Free admission | Reservation is required. For reservations, please contact infotickets@sgt.gr (providing name, surname and mobile phone number)

Onassis Stegi | 20:00 | Foyer +4

Sarah Kenchington (United Kingdom)

Sarah Kenchington’s human-powered semi-mechanical orchestras often give the impression that it is the instruments themselves playing the music, rather than the musician playing the instruments. The English musician and visual artist’s constructs can be found in the Onassis Stegi Fourth Floor Foyer throughout the festival. On Saturday and Sunday at 20:00, audiences will be able to enjoy Sarah Kenchington’s unique performances.

Admission is free, on a first come first served basis | Entrance tickets will be available 1 hour before the event

Onassis Stegi | 20:30 | Main Stage

Jessika Kenney (USA)

Over the last 20 years, Jessika Kenney has developed a completely personal musical style whose roots can be traced somewhere between traditional Indonesian music, Persian classical music, and contemporary experimental and improvisational music. At this year’s Tectonics, she will be presenting an audiovisual work.

Iancu Dumitrescu (Romania)

“For Nathalie Forget” (2019) Eyvind Kang (USA): viola, Nathalie Forget (France): ondes Martenot, Octav Avramescu & Iancu Dumitrescu (Romania): piano

For this year’s Tectonics Festival, the legendary composer of spectral music Iancu Dumitrescu has written a new work for a rare ensemble of instruments – ondes Martenot, viola, piano and electronics – performing a composition that crosses the sound spectrum.

Matmos (USA)

Known to the public through their collaborations with such artists as Björk, ANOHNI (formerly known as Antony), Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet, David Tibet, Robert Wilson and Nico Muhly, Matmos have defined the sound of contemporary electronic music. Exploring the idea of a limited acoustic palette, their 2016 album “Ultimate Care II” drew all its sounds from a washing machine. The album they released in March of this year, titled “Plastic Anniversary”, took plastic as its sole source.

Tickets 5 — 7 €

Onassis Stegi | 22:30 | Upper Stage

AMM (United Kingdom) Eddie Prévost: Drums, Keith Rowe: Guitar, John Tilbury: Piano

Perhaps the most important group of the experimental and free improvisation music scene from the 1960s down until today is coming to Onassis Stegi to give an historic performance. Active since the mid-’60s, when the boundaries between experimental and mainstream were not yet clear, AMM found themselves sharing the stage with such bands as Pink Floyd and Cream.

Tickets 3 — 5 €