ALKIS BALTAS
Film Music
“From Terror to Resistance – Nazi Camp Pavlos Melas
Thessaloniki 1941–1944”
directed by Yorgos Keramidiotis
Spyros Mourikis, Clarinet,
Asterios Pouftis, Cello
Vicky Stylianou, Piano
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 CD, 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 CD 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. (Alkis Baltas)
Product details
01. Introduction (Prologue) [02:15]
02. The Camp [01:07]
03. Greek Province [00:27]
04. Memories of Horror [01:00]
05. Guerrillas’ Song [00:51]
06. Place of Execution [01:41]
07. Visiting a Prisoner [00:47]
08. Death Song [01:29]
09. Despair [00:53]
10. Patience and Hope [00:36]
11. Walter Benjamin (Fugue of Death) [02:23]
12. Prisoner’s Dream [01:24]
13. Prisoner’s Plea and a Prison Guard’s Refusal [04:21]
14. Cart Full of Starvation Victims [02:26]
15. Execution of Freedom Fighters [02:32]
16. Prisoner’s Thoughts [01:12]
17. Song for the Victims [01:26]
18. Walking in the Cemetery [01:17]
19. Execution of a Traitor in the Village [00:38]
20. The Dark World of a Traitor [05:42]
21. Today’s Young People Talk about Fascism [02:51]
22. A Fighter’s Love for his Wife [06:59]
Total time: [44:30]
