7 Consecutive INVENTions are getting a performance by the Greek pianist Fani Karagianni at
AI and Music S+T+ARTS Festival: Synergies of musical creation with Artificial Intelligence Thursday 28 15:20 – 15:35 | Streaming Channel 1
In this exclusive audiovisual streaming, presented by the AI research and communication platform Artificia, we go behind the scenes of Thessaloniki Universities AI Chameleon, a GAN capable of generating musical harmonies that can be used by composers. In a 15 minute capsule, a chamber quartet of musicians from Barcelona’s OBC and the Greek pianist Fanny Karagianni will play pieces whose harmonic content was based on human-machine interaction.
Please watch a new video of Tobias Weiß performing 4 (hommage) études. The concert took place at Fanny Hensel-Saal in Vienna on the 6th of February 2019. The piece is an hommage to the following composers I. Hommage à Helmut Lachenmann, II. Hommage à Gyorgy Ligeti, III. Hommage à Steve Reich and IV. Hommage à Gundega Šmite. Various aspects of the piano playing techniques are highlighted in each of these miniature etudes whilst the fundamental aim of the piece is to help the younger students to open up their minds into a poly-stylistic acoustic environment of negative pedaling, minimalism, patterns, clusters, and isorhythmic structures; in an emotional trip that spans from icy austerity to a warm contemplative nirvana! Enjoy!
meta.ξ | music always wins | a dramatized installation by Longleash Trio
Chaconne for piano, violin, Violoncello, and fixed media is going to get its premiere in New York on the 7th of July 2021 by the American Trio Longleash. The piece is focusing on the sonic moment of a glass breaking and creating a crystalline sound while its particles fall apart on the ground. A special poem was composed by Gundega Smite and myself for this purpose and was used as an outline for the development of the form of the piece.
poem by Gundega Smite & Dimitris Maronidis
When asked about his work words and music and the battle between the two, Samuel Beckett was clear: music is the absolute winner, as it “is the idea itself, unaware of the world of phenomena”2, in contrast to Beckett’s view on language and its expressive limitations
This is indeed true, since music ―especially abstract music― has no signified meaning, at least in the way language has. Even when an extra-musical idea or text is signified through the music, to the unaware listener music remains ―and can be perceived as― a signifier, since there is no established code attaching certain meanings to certain sounds.
When it comes to a live performance of music, is this autonomy a virtue or a flaw? Especially when more than one fields of art are involved and a certain ―or uncertain― message is to be delivered, is the absence of the signified a desired quality of music?
At the bottom line, this principle seems to be inevitably present. Thus, the question raised is not how to change the nature of music, but rather the way it is perceived. That is, to question Beckett’s note: why does music always win? Why is language ―or its visual representation― inferior to music?
In a conventional concert situation, the audience is placed against the stage (and the music) and perceives it in a rather passive way, in the sense that no action that can interfere with the performance is meant to be taken. In this way, any other element that could possibly function as a reference (or even signified) is imposed on the top of music and is decorative. In this situation, music wins again.
Two years after the premiere of my piece Mise en abîme in Riga, I have managed to retrieve the audio files of the recording of that performance! Though the recording suffers from some technical issues (live electronics being recorded only from mics on-stage so lacking a bit of the high frequencies), the spirit of the piece is present here. I think this is probably my most meditative piece so enjoy it in serenity and preferably in dark in your bed!
Mise en abîme is a term used in visual arts to describe a formal technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. A common way of experiencing this effect is by standing between two mirrors, seeing, as a result, an infinite reproduction of one’s image. In this piece, I try to imitate this phenomenon in the field of sound. Fragments of music are repeated many times, each time slightly distorted, in order to create perceptually the same effect.
Mise en abîme was commissioned by Arena Festivāls at Riga, Latvia, and was composed in Autumn of 2018. The premiere of the piece took place at VEF Cultural House in Riga on the 30th of October 2018 by Trio ART-i-Shock and Altera Veritas Ensemble collaborating for this unique concert.
This is a LIVE recording of the premiere. Please mind using a pair of headphones, or loudspeakers to listen to this music.
(YouTube painting) “Las Meninas” by Diego Velázquez
During the second Covid-19 lockdown here in Thessaloniki, I received an email from my very good friend Mehmet Can Ozer to contribute to his festival digitIZMir with a video improvisation. I thought this would be a nice opportunity to experiment with a Korg littleBits analogue synth kit I bought a few years ago. In my electronic works, I seek usually for high sound fidelity. This time, I wanted to play in the field of lo-fi electronics. I programmed a simple granulation engine in SuperCollider, plugged the analog synth into my audio interface, and recorded everything with my camera’s onboard microphone on the fly. Tinkering the hardware and experimenting in this way always brings to me memories of my childhood, when I was enjoying so much to disassemble my toys in order to understand how they work and finding ways to make completely new use out of them!
You can watch the video on 13.12.2020, 31 (CET) on the festival’s YouTube channel. Enjoy!
Please listen to a live recording of my most recent piece performed in Riga by LNSO Double Bass Orchestra conducted by Jānis Stafeckis. Fantasia & Toccata was composed in 2020 amidst the worldwide Covid19 pandemic and under tremendously stressful conditions in my personal life. It has been a piece of luck that in that particular circumstance such an extraordinary and weird formation of an ensemble was given in my hands. No other medium could express better the turmoil I was going through the months this piece was composed.
Please mind using a pair of speakers or headphones to listen to this music due to its low-frequency content.
Live recording (Radio 3) of the premiere at Great Guild Hall, Riga 08.10.2020 Performers: LNSO double bass orchestra (Oskars Bokanovs, Toms Timofejevs, Andris Veinbergs, Dāvis Vilks, Alise Broka, Kristaps Pētersons, Jurģis Klotiņš, Gustavs Vilsons, Viktors Stankēvičs, Raivo Ozols, Viktors Veļičko, Haralds Arnis, Undīne Berga, Mārcis Lipskis, Dzintars Sabļins, Raivis Misjuns)
“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”
An absolutely crazy formation of an ensemble of 16 contrabasses is going to premiere a new piece of mine at Riga in October. 16 Contrabassists from many countries around Europe are going to join their forces and make a concert on the 8th of October at the central concert hall in Riga.
LNSO CHAMBER MUSIC – THE LNSO DOUBLE BASS CHOIR 16 DOUBLE BASSES AND ALICE IN WONDERLAND Thursday, October 8, 2020 at 7 PM – 9 PM Lielā ģilde
Programme: Hans ZIMMER, Carlos GARDEL, John WILLIAMS, Miloslav GAJDOŠ, Antonio VIVALDI, Gundega ŠMITE (premiere), Dimitris MARONIDIS (premiere)
The LNSO’s principal double bass, open and friendly Oskars Bokanovs has had his share of piano duets in the previous season, and he now invites friends and colleagues from near and far to surprise you with double bass solos, duets, quartets, and even a double bass orchestra. The program includes music of all styles and eras – from Vivaldi to film scores, from tango to Czech engravings, as well as new works by Gundega Šmite and Dimitris Maronidis. The stately instrument will reveal its melodic and virtuoso strings, a feast for musicians and listeners alike because 20 double bass players on a single stage – it is not to be missed.
As of today 22.6.2020, my kinetic sound sculpture Multiplexing belongs to the permanent collection of MOMus Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki, Greece. I feel thrilled! I am taking this opportunity to share a few thoughts about the way a composer might feel when expressing himself in a quite different medium than pure sound (visuals, sculpture, etc).
Generally, I believe that apart from the technical differences between various forms of art, there is common ground in the process of expressing oneself through artistic means. Same agonies, efforts, failures, etc. Nevertheless, there were two very special aspects I experienced with this work and I would like to share. The first is the way I interacted with the audience-spectators and the second is the way I had to treat the work after its first exhibition was over.
Four (Hommage) Études is getting performed in Armenia by Hayk Melikyan. The piece consists of 4 etudes made as hommages to four composers (Lachemnam, Ligeti, Reich and Smite). Each etude highlights some aspects of the compositional style of the composer to whom it refers but is always seen from a pedagogical perspective
Please find on youTube a live recording of my new Concerto for Clarinet, String Orchestra, and Electronics, conducted and performed by Guntis Kozma and Sinfonia Concertante at Riga, Latvia on 12th of March 2020.
The piece was commissioned by Mūzikas Festivāls deciBels at Riga, Latvia, and was composed in January of 2020. Please use a pair of headphones, or loudspeakers to listen to this music.
On March 15th 2020 (17 pm) Orbits for piano and tape, is getting another performance at Mexico by Carmen Fergoso at the Auditorio Multiaulas EMA1 Facultad de Artes BUAP along with works by Lockwood and Capuzano. The piece was composed back in 2014 and was premiered in Latvia. A new work based on similar sonic concepts is coming very soon!
meta.ξ presents Muted Blast (.2) 12.03.2020 @ 20:00 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education Toronto
Jana Luksts (piano) Wesley Shen (piano) Adam Sherkin (piano) Matti Pulkki (accordion) Brad Cherwin (bass clarinet) Phil Albert (double bass) Michael Murphy (percussion)
