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'Iridescences' emerged over time as the first work of Nikos Papachristou, with the aim of approaching modality in contemporary music. Everything started in 2013 with a group of musicians in Barcelona, whose musical inquietudes led them to explore the modal music traditions of the Mediterranean and Near East. Over time, initial ideas and improvisations were transformed into compositions, influenced by the popular and classical music traditions of these regions. The recordings were finally completed in Thessaloniki, some years later.
The musical material selects from different instrument timbres, many of which have traveled across these music traditions, allowing them to belong to a larger music family while preserving their uniqueness.
With the evolution of music in Greece over the last decades as a starting point, these musics are now more widely available to be explored and studied, opening new channels of communication between cultures. Original yet familiar patterns, forms, and timbres meet again under a contemporary and creative prism.
In this way, 'Iridescences' came to light, like windings of multiple dimensions that surround us, into which we can feel and perceive.
Iridescences are:
Maria Melachrinou, Pavlos Spyropoulos, Kostas Poulianakis, Giorgos Psaltis, Athanase Tsitsaris, Nikos Papachristou
[*'Iridescences': a lustrous rainbow-like play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves that tends to change as the angle of view changes.]
During the last two decades, his interest has been oriented towards the study of new and old instruments, their possibilities, and the way they contribute to contemporary music. Main references include the still-evolving plurality of popular music genres found in Greece, the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, the Middle East, and the wider East-Mediterranean area. On the island of Crete, he met the 'Labyrinth' workshop. Since then, he has focused on the study of modal music (makam), mainly with the ney and also with various types of plucked strings from the lute family. 'Iridescences' (2018) is his first personal LP, in collaboration with musicians from different regions and cultures.
The musical material selects from different instrument timbres, many of which have traveled across these music traditions, allowing them to belong to a larger music family while preserving their uniqueness.
With the evolution of music in Greece over the last decades as a starting point, these musics are now more widely available to be explored and studied, opening new channels of communication between cultures. Original yet familiar patterns, forms, and timbres meet again under a contemporary and creative prism.
In this way, 'Iridescences' came to light, like windings of multiple dimensions that surround us, into which we can feel and perceive.
Iridescences are:
Maria Melachrinou, Pavlos Spyropoulos, Kostas Poulianakis, Giorgos Psaltis, Athanase Tsitsaris, Nikos Papachristou
[*'Iridescences': a lustrous rainbow-like play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves that tends to change as the angle of view changes.]
During the last two decades, his interest has been oriented towards the study of new and old instruments, their possibilities, and the way they contribute to contemporary music. Main references include the still-evolving plurality of popular music genres found in Greece, the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, the Middle East, and the wider East-Mediterranean area. On the island of Crete, he met the 'Labyrinth' workshop. Since then, he has focused on the study of modal music (makam), mainly with the ney and also with various types of plucked strings from the lute family. 'Iridescences' (2018) is his first personal LP, in collaboration with musicians from different regions and cultures.
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