Arachnesound

"Arachnesound" is feminist sonic technology. It stands for the principles of women-weaving-futures, network building, sonic cyberfeminist attempts to retell historical narratives. "Arachnesound" is an audio collection with 36 compositions around Greek language, sound and feminisms. It is centered around women writers, poetesses and mythologies to interpret women’s lives and realities with radical composition. Field recordings, electro-acoustic, electronic, digital processing, voices are the ingredient of these pieces.

In the included commissioned essay, Angela Dimitrakaki writes: "Arachnesound" “... is a creative counter-archive of resurrected names and of works by contemporary Greek women poets, or whose words are interpreted poetically.”

AGF collaborates with Greek women composers, producers and writers such as Savina Yannatou, Angela Dimitrakaki, Anna Stereopoulou, Dr Maria Papadomanolaki, Maria Arapoglou, Linda Reine Nyongo, Dimitra Ioannou, Konstantina Korryvanti, Ismini Samanidou, Nicoleta Chatzopoulou, Marianna Karakoulaki and Chritina Pitouli to complete the collection. It is AGF’s 5th audio collection of that kind following a German (2010), Finnish (2013), Japanese (2015) and Russian (2019) compilation. Remembering and sound.

The first collaboration between AGF and Onassis Stegi was in the theater of Ancient Messene, where she performed with vocalist and composer Savina Yannatou in the context of "Tuned City". When AGF proposed the "Arachnesound" project to Onassis Stegi, it immediately resonated with our interests, because through time language has similarly been a medium of exclusion. Just as we wanted to re-read an ancient site of political power through a contemporary sonic thinking, it was clear the linguistic heritage of Greece, of which as a culture we are so proud, also needs to be read and heard differently. Because, through the long heritage of the Greek language the narratives that have emerged until comparatively recently have been dominated by male visions and subjectivities. So, especially in a year of usually uncritical celebration of the founding myths of the modern Greek nation, it seemed important to weave a history of women’s words. AGF is an artist working with sound. Her shaping of sonic material, her sensitivity to the intonation of language but also to the soundscape of modern Athens are entangled with the words of generations on end of women who wrote and spoke against all odds. This beautifully crafted mesh of sound and text provokes us to listen up and feel the subversive power of centuries of women’s words and work.
—Christos Carras, Executive Director of Onassis Stegi

Animation: Andreas Karaoulanis

Tracklisting

01 Arachne feat Ismini Samanidou

02 BLACKATHENA feat Reine Linda Nyongo

03 Cassandra feat Savina Yannatou

04 Sappho of Lesbos (≈ 600 BC) feat Maria Arapoglou

05 Myrtis of Anthedon (≈ 500 BC)

06 Korinna (≈ 500 BC)

07 Arete of Cyrene (≈ 500 BC)

08 Ptolemais (≈ 330 BC) feat Anna Stereopoulou

09 Hipparchia of Maroneia (≈ 320 BC)

10 Nossis (≈ 300 BC)

11 Leontion (≈ 300 BC)

12 Anyte of Tegea (≈ 300 BC)

13 Hypatia of Alexandria (≈ 370-416 AD) feat Nicoleta Chatzopoulou

14 Kassiani (≈ 800 AD)

15 Pamphile of Epidaurus (≈ 1 AD)

16 Anna Komnene (1083-1153)

17 Aganice Ainianos (1838-1892)

18 Kallirhoe Parren (1861-1940)

19 Irene Kountouris aka Raika (1901-1936)

20 Maria Polydouri (1902-1930) feat. Maria Papadomanolaki

21 Melpo Axioti (1905-1973)

22 Rita Boumi-Papa (1906-1984)

23 Domna Samiou (1928-2012)

24 unknown Vlach women

25 Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (1939-2020)

26 Katerina Gogou (1940-1993)

27 Eleni Varikas (1949-)

28 Lena Platonos (1951-)

29 Ioanna Zervou

30 Katerina Iliopoulou (1967-)

31 Dimitra Ioannou (1967-)

32 Eftychia Panayiotou (1980-)

33 Konstantina Korryvanti (1986-)

34 Marianna Karakoulaki (1989-)

35 Hermaphroditus

36 Kymopoleia

Credits

The team
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
Music Program Curator
Christos Carras, Executive Director of Onassis Stegi
Producer of Onassis Stegi
Christina Pitouli

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.