Christos Samaras, composer

Academia Quartet: Jaqueline Morard violin I, Christina Fritz violin II, Angelica Wohlmann viola, Michael Dalinger cello

Hellenic Ensemble of Contemporary Music, Efthimios Kavalieratos conductor

Noel Capritas Dos Santos violin, Florans Cohl Capritas piano

ALEA III ensemble, Theodore Antoniou conductor

Filippina Filippova piano, Angel Stankov violin, Josif Radionov viola

dissonART ensemble, Nikos Athineos conductor

Athens Saxophone Quartet: Athanasios Zervas soprano saxophone, Dionisis Rousos alto saxophone, Leo Saguiguit tenor saxophone, Erich Honour baritone saxophone

The extraordinary album APHORISMS is second album in a series dedicated to the one of Greece’s leading composer, Christos Samaras.

This album includes seven works. The String quartet Aphorismus is an experimental proposal of absolute musical economy, as all musical elements are given in the most abstract way. Hence, everything assumes an aphoristic character creating a mosaic of many different sound cells with poles of emotional tensions. Αnaphores is an effort to disclose a content that gradually culminates with musical tiles constantly added, highlighting the concept of psychical harmonization of our existence with higher aspects of ecstasy and mental joy. Music cannot ignore human thought neither emotion. In this sense, the work Anomies - despite any atonal and virtuosic transcendences - emerges as an unconventional music style against the prevailing aesthetics of that era. In the piece we encounter Hellenic elements with atonal and tonal features in a colored postmodern style that corresponds to an imaginary now

The Apology II is in a way an Apology before the Supreme Judge, expressing the existential anxiety of man who struggles against the humiliation and the depravation he has to endure on a daily basis. The path to totality is the main goal and actually acquires a deeper meaning when the musical thought is accompanied by universal ideas and values, creating endless serenity and joy in the Apology IV "Summer Birthday". Apology V is a scream in despair against the trivialization, humiliation and depravation that human beings have to endure, forcing them to live in a world of self-deception.

The spiral form of Egominon V supports all the structural and musical elements, with the only difference that it does not develop them but extends them, shuffling them in space and time as rhythmic or melodic units, as elements that produce each time new harmonic and echochromatic bonds. There is no connection of data, just an endless evolution of contradictions between mobility and inertia, order and disorder, consistency and fickleness, without any restrictions.

These wonderful works are performed by ALEA III ensemble under the direction of Theodore Antoniou, dissonArt ensemble under the direction of Nikos Athineos, Hellenic Ensemble of Contemporary Music, under the direction of Efthimios Kavalieratos, Academia Quartet, Athens Saxophone Quartet, Noel Capritas Dos Santos, Angel Stankov violin, Josif Radionov viola, Florans Cohl Capritas and Filippina Filippova, piano.

Product details

1. String quartet Aphorismus [04:21]

2. Αnaphores [10:11]

3. Anomies [10:14]

4. Apology II [10:08]

5. Apology IV “Summer Βirthday” [17:26]

6. Apology V [10:22]

7. Egomion V [07:51]

Total time: [70:36]