The Tradoxicals | Lena Platonos and Stergios T.

“Approaching and arranging traditional songs had been on our minds for quite a while, and we were looking for ways to make it happen.
We were thinking that there are such beautiful songs intertwined with our history and tradition, which would be given new life with a different touch, a different sound. These songs constitute another world, containing so much hidden energy, beautiful melodies, a variety of rhythms, lyricism, heroic as well as tragic figures, a world that inspired us to experiment with the aesthetics of the songs and take them on other paths…
The people at the Onassis Stegi embraced this idea and supported us, so that the project could be carried out under the most appropriate conditions.
We look forward to presenting them to you on stage, on March 1 and 2, together with our great collaborators.”

– Lena Platonos & Stergios T.

1976
After completing her studies in Berlin, she returns to Greece and begins to work with the radio station “Third Program” of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), whose director at the time was Manos Hadjidakis.

1977
On December 19, the first episode of the one-of-a-kind radio show “Lilipoupoli” is broadcast. Less than two and a half years later, on May 2, 1980, the curtain falls on this unique project and its dream team: Marianina Kriezi, Nikos Kypourgos, and Lena Platonos, under Manos Hadjidakis’ guidance.

1981
In collaboration with Marianina Kriezi, Savina Yannatou and former singer of Apocalypsis, Giannis Palamidas, Lena Platonos makes her personal debut with the album “Sabotage.” “I would put it up there with the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Barclay James Harvest. I would rank it somewhere among these works. That is, a sound related to a classical style, but with a lot of synthesizers,” Savina Yannatou would say many years later.

1982
Although it was recorded earlier, the album “Karyotakis: 13 tragoudia” (Karyotakis: 13 songs) is released by the legendary Lyra label one year after “Sabotage.” Platonos sets the poems to music and Yannatou sings.

1984
Lena Platonos’ next album, “Maskes Iliou” (Sun Masks), finds its way to the record stores. The use of synths is even more intensive, while for some this one is her best album.

1985
However, the brilliant and highly experimental “Gallop” is widely considered her top album. An album which, among other things, was the occasion for the artist to meet Konstantinos Vita: “Kostas and I know each other since the years of ‘Gallop.’ And we really have a special relationship. I feel kind of like his spiritual mother.”

1986
She releases the even more experimental and innovative album “Lepidoptera,” thus completing the renowned electronic trilogy of the “priestess of Greek electronica.”

1991
One year after her on-stage collaboration with Dionysis Savvopoulos at Zoom, Lena Platonos releases the album “Mi mou tous kiklous tarate” (Do not disturb my circles). According to her, it is “one of my best albums, albeit lesser known.”

1997
Konstantinos Vita, Mikael Delta, Coti K., Netrina, and This Fluid join forces to pay homage to the great artist, by covering her songs. The tribute album “To Mixer tis Lenas Platonos” (The Mixer of Lena Platonos) is released by FM Records. That same year, along with Savina Yannatou, she records and releases “Anapnoes” (Breaths), an album that received very good reviews in Japan.

2005
After years of battling depression, due to the loss of her parents, Lena Platonos is back, on the occasion of the collected edition of her wonderful lyrics, under the title “Ta logia mou” (My Words), published by Odos Panos.

2008
With the album “Imerologia” (Diaries) she returns to the electronic sound. A new creative period starts for good, which is marked by her great retrospective concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on July 28, where her friends and fellow musicians Giannis Palamidas, Konstantinos Vita, Elli Paspala, and Martha Frintzila appear as guests.

2010
Almost 30 years after she set 13 poems by Kostas Karyotakis to music, and having Giannis Palamidas at her side, she turns to another great poet, and her album “Konstantinos Kavafis: 13 tragoudia” (Constantine Cavafy: 13 songs) is released by Inner Ear Records. What is more, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the poet’s birth, she presents her work at Pallas, directed by Dimitris Papaioannou.

2015
Her liminal album “Gallop” is re-released worldwide by Dark Entries Records. “Fact” Magazine includes it in its list with the 25 best reissues of the year, and suddenly Lena Platonos’ songs are played in famous club nights (Boiler Room) and fancy catwalks (Dior). The same year, she presents at Onassis Stegi for the first time a cycle of songs in English, under the title “Hope is the thing with feathers,” based on poetry by Emily Dickinson. At the second part of the concert, the cycle “Karyotakis: 13 songs” is presented.

2016
The re-releases of her iconic electronic albums from the ’80s continue under the Dark Entries Records label. Next up are “Sun Masks” and “Lepidoptera.” Also, many prominent artists of the contemporary electronic scene, such as Red Axes, Avalon Emerson, and Lena Willikens, remix songs of hers.

2017
The world premiere of “lp” (lambda pi), the documentary by Christos Petrou that presents Lena Platonos’ life, work, influence, and timelessness, takes place at the Onassis Stegi.

2018
“Lena Platonos and the secret sound of Greek electronica” is the title of her long interview in the “Resident Advisor” magazine, the “Bible of electronic music,” whose journalist traveled to Athens to meet her in person.

2023
Back to the Onassis Stegi. Lena Platonos and composer and producer Stergios T., along with three singers and four traditional instrument soloists, will present their new project, “The Tradoxicals.” With the use of synthesizers, computers, and other contemporary media, they will perform live more than twenty traditional songs from all over the country.