Tomorrow Comes The Harvest at the archeological site of Delos

Feel the unexpected – music in places you never dreamed

World Premiere: Thursday, January 20, 2022 | 21:00 (EET)

Duration: 67’

Free to stream for an unlimited time

Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/o8mr2Sa9ESk

Watch the live premiere here: https://youtu.be/EahXXV0KlCY

As part of its continued belief in the power of music, in bringing past and present together, and in collaborating with others, the Onassis Foundation is creating yet another pioneering hybrid arts event of singular cultural importance for Greece. Building on its collaboration and involvement with the ADD Festival (an electronic music festival in Athens), the Onassis Foundation is turning up the volume once more, this time on the island and archeological site of Delos with Tomorrow Comes the Harvest – a music ensemble of ritualistic power founded by the pioneering Jeff Mills with Jean-Phi Dary and Prabhu Edouard, who are playing together for the first time to grace us with a unique sonic and visual experience. This musical journey has been filmed by the director Christos Sarris and will have its world premiere on January 20, on the Onassis Channel on YouTube. Following the Onassis Foundation’s production of Charlotte de Witte at the site of ancient Messene – a DJ set watched by millions around the globe on the Onassis Channel – this new audio-visual experience unfolds at a timeless, monumental site and invites us to explore it, wherever we may be in the world. This is an Onassis Foundation production, based on an idea by the ADD Festival.

From the underground Detroit club scene in the early 1980s through to the audio-visual feast of an experience offered up by his most recent conceptual appearances at cinemas, galleries, and museums (including the Louvre in 2015), Jeff Mills has proven himself a contemporary pioneer of dance music culture. He has won the respect of everyone, even those with only a passing familiarity with what has generally come to be called electronic music, which he often mixes with jazz. This project marks the 30th anniversary of his music label Axis.

Mills has joined forces with the keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary and the tabla player Prabhu Edouard to form “Tomorrow Comes the Harvest” – an innovative music ensemble that has entranced the globe with its musically unexpected twists and turns, its improvised composition of sounds that go above and beyond the established limits of a DJ set. On the invitation of the Onassis Foundation, these three musicians have travelled to the mythic isle of Delos for their first joint musical encounter, to play a concert – without a live audience, but filled with the light and air of the Mediterranean – at the Temple of Isis. This mystical place seems to stir and come back to life under the musical spells cast by Mills. An ancient Doric temple, surrounded by the waters of the Aegean, it becomes transformed by sounds created in the here and now.

Delos, a solitary isle suffused with the otherworldly silence of its antiquities, sparks the imaginations of modern-day visitors and artists. It is a place entwined with the very notion of light, one that embodies the expansive horizon of the Greek spirit. The earliest detected human presence on Delos dates to around 2,500 BCE, with Greeks from across the then-known world gradually settling the island. The ruined city encountered by visitors today was built in the decades following 166 BCE, when the Romans made Delos a free port. UNESCO declared Delos a World Heritage Site in 1990. In this way, the international community recognized the poetic essence encapsulated by the history of an island described by ancient writers as a “roaming rock” fixed into place by four pillars of stone in the heart of the Aegean, where Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. In a circle around it danced the other islands, which is how they got their collective name – the Cyclades, meaning circles. Images and notions of rebirth and constant motion endlessly recur in the art of those who look upon the island’s light.

Jeff Mills comments: “Live at Delos Island was a dream-like experience. The geographical location, the situation and the goal are not things that I would consider normal. It was layers of journeys that would eventually bring the three of us to the praise of nature, history and a higher level of consciousness. As with any team of explorers, where each person plays a significant role in the process, this was no different. The cosmic chemistry of traveling with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary and tabla master Prabhu Edouard accumulated in something poetic, which was until this occasion, only imagined as an extension of what the late great drummer Tony Allen and I initiated. We improvised our musical course together – as one musical vessel. And this is the purpose of Tomorrow Comes the Harvest. It is the means to reach, explore and grow creatively, without compromise or preconceived ideas about what needs to be done. The concept is about proposing freedom and thinking openly. After this experience, it is hard to imagine that each of us is the same person we were before we traveled to Delos. I have the sense that something was advanced and elevated.”

Afroditi Panagiotakou, Director of Culture of Onassis Foundation comments: “The Onassis Culture ecosystem is a catalyst for things to happen differently, an accelerator for surprises to occur, a team of curators of public curiosity ready to enjoy fearless encounters. But how can you multiply the experience of being on the island of Delos? An ancient island where for millennia human communities created a context for worshipping, for pleasure, commerce and creativity. An island where nobody was allowed to be buried so that no one could be the owner of the that special place. ‘Tomorrow comes the harvest,’ said the musicians Jeff Mills, Prabhu Edouard and Jean-Phi Dary. And that day – when we gathered on Delos for their performance and made libations to the ancient Greek gods and all gods of all religions, asking for the wind to play with us, for the light to be warm and tender, for the statues to listen, for the sea to be wavy so that we never forget the journey – that day, the harvest did come. And we were there to celebrate.”

“Tomorrow Comes the Harvest” – a trio of extraordinary artists – are reaching new heights in this magical landscape, promising us a ritualistic audio-visual experience that feels like the climactic culmination of the long journey made by these three musicians who are always in search of new ways to make their world resonate, until the break of dawn and beyond. Tune in for an unforgettable musical experience and give in to the seductive charms of a land humans first set foot on four-and-a-half thousand years ago.

CREDITS

TOMORROW COMES THE HARVEST (JEFF MILLS, PRABHU EDOUARD, JEAN-PHI DARY) AT THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE OF DELOS

Directed by Christos Sarris

Curatorial Direction: Afroditi Panagiotakou

Project Manager: Dimitris Theodoropoulos

Producer: Vassilis Panagiotakopoulos

Chief Operating Officer: Chronis Lillis

Head of Production: Dimitra Dernikou

Project Consultant: Nikos Athanasopoulos

Curators: Konstantinos Dagritzikos, Panagiotis Pilafas, Nikos Palogos

Director of Photography: Evan Maragkoudakis

Art Director: Eva Manidaki

Technical Manager: Karabilas Lefteris

Sound Engineer: Brona Lynch

Production Coordinator: Elena Choremi

Production Coordinator & Assistant to the Director: Smaragda Dogani

Line Producer: Zoe Mouschi

Camera Operators: Dimitris Zivopoulos, Filippos Zamidis, Koralia Dogani

Drone Operator: Orfeas Kalafatis

Assistant Art Director: Ismini Linthorst

Editor: Tryfon Karatzinas

Color Correction: Manthos Sardis

Post-Production: KENT Films

Video Crew Assistant: Andreas Markou

Sound Engineers: Stamos Vasilakis, Giannis Gkliatis

Electrician: Kiriakos Xanthopoulos

Stage Engineer: Iakovos Darzentas

Assistant Stage Engineer: Leonardo Cela

Backliner: Iordanis Chatzivasilakis

Video Crew Assistant: Andreas Markou

Line Producer: Despoina Sifniadou

Set Construction: Lazaridis Scenic Studio

Agent: Katty Lange

All compositions are written by Jeff Mills, Jean-Philippe Dary, and Prabhu Edouard.

© 2022 Axis Records

All rights are reserved.

An Onassis Production, based on an idea by the ADD Festival.

The archeological site of Delos falls under the jurisdiction of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades.

All image rights to the monuments that appear belong to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (in accordance with Law 3028/2002).

Onassis Culture

Onassis Culture – centered around the performing arts centre Onassis Stegi (‘shelter’ and ‘roof” in Greek) and its various other cultural spaces in Athens – is Onassis Foundation’s cultural arm. Onassis Culture focuses on Athens as a centre of global contemporary culture through a series of initiatives and works set within the city. Bringing international culture to Athens and Greek culture to the world, the foundation operates internationally and has activity in New York and Los Angeles. Onassis Culture promotes dialogue about democracy, social and environmental justice, racial and gender equality and the human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community through talks and events. Supporting artistic development, creation, and experimentation across a range of media, Onassis Culture produces performances, films, exhibitions, digital media, publications, documentaries, podcasts and hybrid works, and offers fellowships and residencies both to emerging and established artists. With a constant online presence through a dedicated Youtube channel, Onassis Culture creates content for the present moment: culture connected to the here and now that becomes a way of life, embracing the local made global and the global made local.

The Onassis Channel on YouTube

The Onassis Channel on YouTube broadcasts out of Athens, New York, and Los Angeles to reach the entire world. The Onassis Foundation uploads and shares instants, images, discussions, sounds and emotions to its YouTube channel: performances, concerts, podcasts, encounters, exhibitions, educational programs, virtual cinematic experiences, and online courses. The Onassis Foundation is bringing Onassis Stegi into every home – to a place not written on any map – to entertain and to educate, to bring us together and to spark discussion.

Read more

https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/jeff-mills-on-delos