Tectonics Athens 2019 | 2nd Day

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.

Duration: 45 minutes

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

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.

Duration: 45 minutes

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

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.

Duration: 20 minutes

Free admission

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 Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang to the harsh electronic sounds of Dror Feiler and Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten), and from Yannis Ioannidis's Tropic written in 1968 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.

Duration: 2 hours (with intermission)

Tickets 5 — 7 €

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.

Duration: 60 minutes

Tickets 3 — 5 €

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.

Duration: 2 hours

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

Dror Feiler Epexēgēsis - Monodram (2018-19) for orchestra, singer, reeds and live electronics.

“…even regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimised — the question involuntarily arises — to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered...” (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Philosophy of History)

Epexegesis - Epexēgēsis - Επεξήγησης

from Greek epi, "in addition" and exegeisthai, "to explain"

The addition of words to clarify meaning

History presents itself as a "slaughter-bench" inspiring "grief" and "helpless sadness." Wars spring to mind as soon as any discussion of Reason in history is raised.

Hegel spoke of the “slaughter-bench of history” to which mankind was delivered as part of the “cunning of reason,” that is, as part of the larger scheme of historical providence; thus did he nobly synthesize, as only an academic sage could, radical suffering with radical optimism. But the majority of men are too undisciplined to submit to such a theodicy, and they persist in asking with Job: why, why?