The music I chose for this disc represents a spiritual journey of self-discovery. The sounds create a mystical atmosphere, at once abstract and deeply-felt. For me, they are as powerful as the sights and smells of the Mediterranean. The power of the Mediterranean is felt by everyone who lives there; felt as silence, as distant sounds, echoes, reflections of blue and white, the transparency and clarity of the sea and the sky and its sounds, its mixture of cosmopolitanism and isolation.
Erato Alakiozidou
Erato Alakiozidou has arranged these works in a carefully-chosen order to create a musical and emotional journey for the listener. Each work has its own voice, its own personality; a different sonority, intensity, character, notation or quality of attack.
The music featured on this disc ranges from the abstract, such as the Piano Pieces by Anastassis Philippakopoulos, to the metaphysical, in the dream-pieces of Stathis Gyftakis, to the evocative, with Mediterranean flora and fauna conjured up in Mediterranean Desert by Giorgos Koumendakis; fish and insects suggested as vividly as the fragrances of sage, mint, and thyme.
Erato Alakiozidou was born in Greece and, from her home in Thessaloniki, has been active in commissioning, promoting and performing Greek contemporary music for 20 years. She believes passionately in the capacity for Greek music in all its quality and variety to find a wider international audience. This disc is the fruit of that passion.
