The exceptional album CLOSED SQUARE includes premiere recordings of works by the distinguished Greek composer HARI KANAKIS, written since 1999 to 2019. The carefully selected album’s repertoire consists of ten compositions of contemporary music, presented from various perspectives. These compositions enable performers to present various techniques, a rich, dynamic palette, a vocal and instrumental musicianship, an excellent recitation, above all, honest and deep emotions, being expression of an intellectual and personal reflection on performed music. (© Michail Travlos)

Includes:

String Quartet No. 1

ÉxQuartet:

Monika Sawczuk, violin I, Łukasz Górewicz, violin II

Grzegorz Sadowski, viola, Tomasz Szczęsny, cello

Whirlpools for clarinet and piano

Angelos Politis, clarinet Victoria Kiazimis, piano

I Have Started To Say for soprano and piano

Phillip Larkin, poetry

Sofia Papadimitropoulou, soprano and Dimitris Yakas, piano

String Quartet No. 3

ÉxQuartet:

Monika Sawczuk, violin I, Łukasz Górewicz, violin II

Grzegorz Sadowski, viola, Tomasz Szczęsny, cello

 

The Water Mill for baritone and piano

Athina Sofianou, poetry

Kostis Konstandaras, baritone and Dimitris Yakas, piano

String Quartet No. 4

L’ ANIMA:

Stella Tsani, violin I, Brunilda-Eugenia Malo, violin II

Ilias Sdukos, viola, Lefki Kolovou, cello

The City in The City for soprano and piano

Dimitris Panousakis, poetry

Sofia Papadimitropoulou, soprano and Dimitris Yakas, piano

Closed Square for choir and orchestra

Mihail Agafita, conductor

The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic „Serghei Lunchevici” of the Republic of Moldova

Ilona Stepan, artistic director and lead conductor

Doina Academic Choral Chapel

Winner, Best Instrumental Album at the 2021 Clouzine International Music Awards!

The album LAMEDH includes 22 compositions by 21 contemporary composers, which are recorded for the first time (world premiere recordings). The album contains a range of new works for flute and clarinet, flute and piano, flute, cello and piano.

This album offers a broad range of musical experience spanning XXI works. The album offers a rich musical experience covering the works of the 21st century. The musicians' performances are unique, and all the pieces without exception fascinate and deserve to be listened and performed again in the future.

The composers of the album include: Aaron Alter, Whitman Brown, Lars Fetzek, Ananias Ananiadis, Brian Field, Jarmo Herkman, Robert Herschbach, Szymon Borys, Ssu-Yu Huang, Alice Hunter, Jimmy Kachulis, Scott Brickman, Manos Panayiotakis, Giorgos Papamitrou, Richard Pressley, Vasileios Kolovos, Louis Sauter, Michail Travlos, Matthew Willis, Andrzej Mozgala and Yiola Voutsina-Papagiannidi.

Alkis Baltas writes: "The album "Musical Mosaics" includes nine works from different periods of my career as a composer. In the last four the melodies belong to the Greek folk music tradition. The lyrics of "Morning Star" come from the homonymous, full of sensitivity and tenderness, poetic work of Yannis Ritsos. Enchanted by Ritsos' wonderful words, I wanted to write a very simple song - like a lullaby- moving in a serene and dreamy atmosphere. The work "Greensleeves - dream" was written in November 2008. The composition is based on the Renaissance melody titled "Greensleeves", which, with the lyrics adapted by William Chatterton Dix in 1865, is sung until this day as a Christmas song. "The Elder in Hagia Sophia" is based on a poem by Archimandrite Antipas Nikitaras, which refers to the feelings of an Elder when he looks at the four minarets around Hagia Sophia. The work "Wind Blowing... " is based on excerpts from the text of David's 39th [38th] Psalm. The Psalm refers to the short and ephemeral human life. "In foreign lands", the lyrics used are excerpts from various folk songs referring to migration. The work "Tonight at midnight" is based on a song from Asia Minor (Sinasos, Cappadocia) which refers in a very moving way to the pain of a mother for her son who is an immigrant, and her prayer to the Virgin to protect him in the foreign land. This brief composition "Help me, o Mother of God" is also one of my works based on Greek folk tunes, or, generally, inspired by Greek and Cypriot traditional music and poetry. The melody of "Saint George, My Master" comes from Sinasos, Asia Minor. "Cypriot Suite for strings" was written in 1969, when I was still a student at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. It was originally composed for violin and piano."

This album includes five works. In sophisticated "Suite" for piano, newer techniques, such as 12-tone elements and clusters, are combined with some traditional forms, such as those of canon and fugato. For the composition "Vision" extracts of melodies of Hildegard von Bingen were used, which composer processed in the computer in such a way to not be identified, and he mixed them with sounds of the wind, waves, and others. The sources of inspiration of the pieces of music which constitute the work "Greek Dialogues" are five very well-known dialogues which are connected inherently with Greek history and civilization. The work "Echoes", with the subtitle of the work "Memories from Our Folk Music", explains the intention of the composer not to create a composition with folklore character, but a modern work with distant rhythmic and melodic references to Greek folk music. These references are so short and fleeting that sometimes they are barely acknowledged. The "Unknown Island" is, according to the composer, a lonely place which no one else knows, except for ourselves, and where our thought and imagination take shelter to live in dreams or what it cannot-or consciously avoids to-meet in real life. There are no pretenses, inhibitions, or compromises there, only the truth of our self. These wonderful works are performed by ALEA III ensemble under the direction of Theodore Antoniou, dissonArt ensemble under the direction of Nikos Athineos, Vicky Stylianou, Costas Anastassopoulos and violin duo, which consist of Spyros Gikontis and Eleni Petridou.

The exceptional album SACRED CHORAL WORKS includes premiere recordings of works by the distinguished Greek composer Alkis Baltas, written since 1978 to 2010. The carefully selected album’s repertoire consists of six compositions of contemporary vocal music, presented from various perspectives. These compositions enable singers to present various techniques, a rich, dynamic palette, a vocal musicianship, an excellent recitation, above all, honest and deep emotions, being an expression of an intellectual and personal reflection on performed music. The Armenian Chamber Choir (ACC) was established with the generous sponsorship of “Vatche and Tamar Manoukian” Benevolent Association in October 2000. Robert Mlkeyan, a “Movses Khorenatsi” medal recipient and an Honored Art Worker of Armenia since 2008, was invited to occupy the post of the Artistic Director and the Principal Conductor of the Choir. Under Mlkeyan’s leadership, the ACC was recognized as the best chamber choir of Armenia in a short span of time. In 2008, the ACC acquired the status of a state (public) choir and was renamed into State Chamber Choir of Armenia (NCCA).

Award-winning recording artist and renowned flutist Iwona Glinka presents a recital composed of 53 pieces by 40 composers from 14 countries whose creativity is rooted in various popular trends in the 21st century. These pearls were created somewhat off the beaten track of the artistic activity of their creators, commonly associated with other forms and different instruments. Iwona Glinka decided to create a fascinating interpretation for the music lovers and she chose to record all works for two flutes by her self!

The composers of the album include: Aaron Alter, Christos Sp. Anastassiou, Evangelos Andrikos, Nikos Athanassakis, Scott Brickman, Andrzej Borzym, Aris Carastathis, Ricky Chaggar, Marcel Chyrzynski, Dorothee Eberhardt-Lutz, Stephen de Filippo, Robert Fruehwald, Stephen de Filippo, Keith R. Gambling, Alexandros Georgiadis, Alessandro Giannotti, Chris Hung, Anicia Kohler, Dimitris Kostopoulos, Martin Lennartz, Dianna Link, Dimitris Mantzirakis, Spiros Mazis, Helena Papari, Athina Pavlaki-Pirounia, Richard Pressley, Ailís Ní Ríain, Louis Sauter, José Jesus de Azevedo Souza, Stamatia Statherou, Greg A Steinke, Neil Stipp, Panagiotis Theodossiou, William P. Toutant, Michail Travlos, Dimitris Tsimpanos, Juan Carlos Vasquez, Jean-Pierre Vial, Daniele Vulpiani, Rodney Waschka, Anthony Whittaker.

An exceptional album WAW of the outstanding Greek-Polish soloist, Iwona Glinka, with electro-acoustic and solo compositions for flute was recorded in April 2019 and includes 13 works by 12 contemporary composers, which are released for the first time (world premiere recordings). Six of these compositions are for flute with the electroacoustic media such as tape, computer-generated sounds and electronics by Talia Amar, Aris Carastathis, Jacob Elkin, Michail Travlos, Juan Carlos Vasquez and Peter S Walton.
In WAW, the composers who have written music for solo flute are: Ryan Carraher, Charalampos Navrozidis, Athina Pavlaki-Pirounia, Richard Pressley, Greg A Steinke and Daniele Vulpiani.

In Michail Travlos's second album dedicated solely to his own music, following on from the award-winning album PROGRESSIONS, he proves to be one of Greece's most interesting and convincing living modern composers. This album explores seven imaginative works. He has managed to create an exciting and often challenging personal voice that is always interesting and very appealing. In NIGHT VISIONS the listener experiences works of diverse styles and aesthetic perspectives. Even though most of the work titles are derived from a non-musical origin, Travlos’s robust technique and fine-tuned elaboration of the music material ensure the preservation of the fragile balance between rationality and the sentimental nature, that governs the compositional procedure. Throughout the works, the common element in the composer’s view is the meticulous exploration of intervallic qualities in terms of texture and time. Through this microstructural point of departure, we see the composer’s intention to create soundscapes and inspired works, that are differentiated in terms of perception and form.

The extraordinary album COLOURS - METAMORPHOSES by Michail Travlos in the aesthetic of the individual chromesthesia - sound-color synesthesia. The composer writes: "COLOURS, a project for electronics, flute, English horn, violin and violoncello, where each color has it's own properties with it's own wavelength and frequency. Although white could be said to be a color, it is generally not included in the scientific spectrum as it is in fact made up of all the colors of the spectrum, but it is often referred to being a color. Isaac Newton proved that white light is indeed made up of colors by passing natural sunlight through a glass prism which in result projected a rainbow of colors on a surface. He then proceeded to use a second glass prism and combined the light from the first prism (which split the suns rays into separate colors) to produce white light once again. Thus proving white light contains color. Originally, METAMORPHOSES (transformations) was written for a video art composition which had to do with the transformation of realistic images to imaginary ones. Here are a few examples of some pictures and their transformations for a possible better understanding of the music."

Spectrum Vol.1 is a new album of electroacoustic compositions that explores these ideas through a musical meditation on time and space, represent traces of the collective imagination, and similarities between different cultures point and a shared human experience. Each work depicts a sonic landscape that serves as a musical reflection of a space with cross-cultural significance. Each space's sound world is evoked through the use of a different custom-built amplified vessel for each movement. The album features 14 world premiere recordings of new and varied electronic and electroacoustic music by 13 living composers.

Alkis Baltas writes: "I wrote the music for the movie From Terror to Resistance - Pavlos Melas Nazi Camp in 2018, upon commission by the film's director, George Keramidiotis (co-produced with the Greek Film Center). The film is based on the diary of Leonidas Yassimakopoulos, who was one of the hundreds of prisoners in the Pavlos Melas military camp that the invaders had turned into a prison and a place of execution of Greek patriots. L. Yassimakopoulos kept daily notes on what was happening in the camp during his imprisonment. In the film, for practical reasons, only excerpts of the original music I composed specifically for this purpose were used, which included only three instruments. In some scenes. I also used brief excerpts from three of my earlier works (tracks 2 ("Hymn to the Night"), 9 ("Lament"), 12 ("Hymn to the Night"), and 15 ("Absence")). On this release the pieces I composed for clarinet, cello, and piano are presented in their complete form and not in fragments. In my music, I often use slow instrumental monologues and expressing the silence of pain, terror, despair, or even rage. The titles I have chosen for each piece of music on the album sometimes do not refer to the content of the respective scenes in the film but express my own feelings and the images I could "see" in my mind while writing the music."

The outstanding album PEACE IS WHEN... is the first album in a series dedicated to the one of Greece's leading composers, Christos Samaras. The recording includes 17 songs that run the gamut of the "Thamyriades" Female Vocal Ensemble of Polygyros Halkidiki's repertoire - from full-voice style pieces to the women's work song tradition of Greek Macedonia. Samaras turned to wonderful Greek poetry by Odysseas Elytis, Nikiforos Vrettakos, George Seferis, Kostis Palamas, Georgios Drossinis, Tellos Agras for these the beautiful Greek songs.

The album WITOLD SZALONEK International Composers’ Competition, Kwidzyn 2018, contains the awarded works of the final stage of the competition that took the place in Kwidzyn on 4 and 5 June 2018 as part of the concert season of the 2nd International Festival "Kwidzyn Music Spring". The idea for the Witold Szalonek International Composers' Competition 2018 – 1st Edition was born of the idea of creating a project that would be aimed at getting to know the contemporary music of our time, dedicated to the memory of the great Polish composer of the 20th century, Witold Szalonek (1927-2001). Works from 16 countries were submitted and a committee composed of: Marcel Chyrzynski (Poland), Dagfinn Koch (Norway), Miroslaw Pachowicz (Poland), Mark Hartt-Palmer (Great Britain), Dariusz Przybylski (Poland), Michail Travlos (Greece / Poland ) chose 17 works from 11 countries. Among them are composers already with a very rich career, distinguished academic professors, and talented youth: Mats O Hansson (Sweden), Christopher Bochmann, George Holloway (United Kingdom), Ali Afshary (Iran), Franciszek Araszkiewicz (Poland), Mario Folli, Gaetano Lorandi (Italy), Elena Papari, Ananias Ananiadis, Dimitris Mantzirakis, Dimitris Tsimpanos ( Greece), Shoryu Itazu, Ryuji Kubota (Japan), Robert Lemay (Canada), Kong Zhixuan (China), Jaime Belmonte Caparrós (Spain), Martín Rincón Botero (Colombia). Biographical notes of composers and artists complement the beautiful words of Justyna Liguz: Yellow flowers, as a symbol of the spring born against the background of the castle in Kwidzyn, are at the same time a showcase of the place where the International Kwidzyn Music Spring Festival takes place. The Gothic stronghold is part of the cathedral and castle complex with its unique architecture. The building was constructed in the 14th century in the diocese of Pomezania for the needs of canons of the chapter. Throughout history, the function of the castle underwent radical changes. There were offices, magazines, a court, a prison, and even a school. In 1950, medieval walls were intended for a museum that operates in the cultural space of Kwidzyn and the entire region up to this day.

The album ZAYIN contains a range of world premiere recordings of new works for flute and piano. The works are performed by two world-class soloists who specialize in contemporary music. This is their third recording, following on from the award-winning release ALEPH and HE. The works have an excellent range of styles and moods and are a fine compilation that will prove attractive and essential to all contemporary music enthusiasts and all lovers of flute music. The composers of the album include Alessandro Aldrovandi, Aaron Alter, Greg Bartholomew, Sebastian Anthony Birch, José Jesús Martínez-Espuig, Giorgos Papamitrou, Randall Snyder, José Jesus de Azevedo Souza, Stamatia Statherou, William Toutant and Donald Man-Ching Yu.

The album TWO MINUTES for solo flute contains 36two-minute works, written by 35 composers from 14 countries, collected and performed by Iwona Glinka. Award-winning recording artist and renowned flutist Iwona Glinka presents a recital composed of pieces whose creativity is rooted in various popular trends in the 21st century. These pearls were created somewhat off the beaten track of the artistic activity of their creators, commonly associated with other forms and different instruments. The composers of the album include: Aaron Alter, Christos Sp. Anastassiou, Scott Brickman, Jerome de Bromhead, Daniele Ciminiello, Jorge Delgado, András Derecskei, Alexandros Georgiadis, Alessandro Giannotti, Connor Gibbs, Robert Herschbach, Ssu-Yu Huang, Joshua Ivar Dubé, Rebecca Kaiserin, Hari Kanakis, Vasileios Kolovos, Martin Lennartz, Daiwei Lu, Chan Wing Lun, Kaori Nakano, Giorgos Papamitrou, Helena Papari, Athina Pavlaki-Pirounia, William Price, Brandon Psenicka, Marco Scorsolini, Soheil Shirangi, Greg A Steinke, Neil Stipp, Jason Taurins, Anna Terzaroli, Michail Travlos, Jean-Pierre Vial, Yiola Voutsina-Papagiannidi, and Peter S Walton.