This music of this work, in its original form, was composed on the basis of a series of works by Herman Blaut entitled “Paradise Has No Apple-tree”, which were exhibited in 1992.
The musical piece has kept the initial title to which I added the phrase “LOCUS/2” (“Locus” = Location / in Greek, there is the word “Topos” – “Τόπος”).
I used this concept of “Locus” to indicate the meeting area of two artistic fields: music and painting.
This music work was later used as a basis for work presented in the CD “MUSICA PRACTICA” (tracks 17-21).
It was the starting point to develop a personal approach to music technology.
Furthermore, it was an important step in my effort to create music that stemmed from the very nature of a painting, making up an inextricable organic entity (see text above).
In September 1996, this music, composed for the works by Herman Blaut, and in direct association with them, formed the basis for the dance – theatre work done with Efi Tsolakidou.
My personal feeling for Blaut’s work, even back in 1992, revolved around a dream-like, purely «psychoanalytic» dimension.
These works are like a living fairy-tale, a whole pulsating world of figures, points, colors and symbols. So, I thought that my music should express this inner adventure of every artist during the course of their working.
(At the time I was reading a relevant and astounding study by Arnold Ehrenzweich, «The Hidden Order of Art», a book that influenced me very much both as a person and as an artist).
Around this central concept I composed a music that in its various parts freely corresponded to certain stages of the creative process itself, described in what follows.
In this sense this Fantasia is a work dedicated to demonstrate symbolically the various processes involved in creativity.
This music was originally composed in 1991 for an exhibition of works by painter Kate Kechaya-Theodorou. Back then, while looking for ways to relate my work as much as possible with fine-art works, I searched the works of the painter for elements that would form the basis for sound «tied to» these paintings.
A truly essential aspect in the case of Kate was the materials used.
Leaves and flower petals in layers overlying each other, during the first period of the artist’s work, and colors (acrylics and oil) during her next period.
Finally, I discovered in her work many other things.
A diffuse dominating sense of a sort of a very low and «deep echo» as if being in a huge hollow trunk; a «reverberation» of huge inner spaces; figures which emerged or disappeared if you were looking at a painting from a close or distant perspective; a deadly stillness in conflict with a truly vivacious movement; a vague religious sense, and, above all, a diffuse deep feeling for a world where tenderness magically coexists with violence.
Thus, various kinds of sounds were structured in the studio from samples (digitally processed sounds) working on them at various levels of processing.
The sound sources were stones, gravel, pebbles and water.
This sound material was complemented by two «pure» sound-colors: the oboe and the harp.
The overall musical work incorporated certain themes from other, independent works of mine, appropriately varied.
In September 1996, this music, stemming from my work in close relation with the paintings of Kate Kechaya-Theodorou, formed the second core used while collaborating with Efi Tsolakidou and co-creating the 3 ISIMERIES.
Through our working together, this older music material, was further elaborated on.
This has happened because Efi and I sought ways to relate as much as possible the paintings with the stage action and of course with the sound.
Through various «tricks», by modifying the music and, of course, through the choreography, we believe that the techniques and materials of Kate were finally appropriately underlined.
The role of the dancer corresponds to that of the painter (this motif is also used in the first Fantasia but in a totally different manner).
Two of the artist’s works are used on stage, representative of the two periods of her work in regards to the materials used, as this was considered a particularly important aspect.
This Fantasia is quite different from the other two.
Given the experience we had when we started out, this Fantasia portrays a more advanced form of the code of our work.
This is because there was nothing ready beforehand to act as a basis; there was no concept from a work of art, no sound to express this idea.
I would say that this Fantasia promoted in a decisive manner the language of our creative communication, enhancing further the simultaneous composition of sound and movement.
For this part, we started with a main concept – “script” – related to the puppet and found some initial movement motifs.
A piece from my third CD work “MUSICA PRACTICA”, suited to the central concept we had formed with our initial movement motifs.
We gradually completed the sound by integrating variations of other compositions of mine.
Furthermore, in this part, the fine art element does not stem from a series of paintings.
It was the construction of a puppet as well as the shaping of images by Daisy who were later photographed and projected as slides.
Demosthenes Fotiades played the violin in the first three musical parts. The sound material was then processed digitally.
The central concept has to do with the puppet, a symbol of the child’s universe, a place where inner and outer reality are experienced as an integrated sensation.
This reflects the inner continuum of our personal sense of time and our own personal history contrasted to a fragmentary, void, dissociated adult life.
Of course, there are not good or bad solutions.
It can be destructive to remain a child as well as it is destructive to become a sterilised adult.
During life we have to be all the time both, we have to dynamically equalise our multiple natures, needs, tensions.
Finally, the invisible strings that are decisive for the puppet’s movements, symbolise the succumbing to a merciless external reality. (However, they could also portray self-limitation, a passive escapism to reminiscence when we give up and remain trapped in ourselves).
The dream of the puppet is to connect her pieces, to become a «whole» being, a child and an adult at the same time.
This concept forms the basis of the «plot» of this Fantasia (regardless of the fact that the motifs of “dissociation” and “unification” are present in different forms in the other two Fantasias, too).
If we (the “puppet”) are successful in integrating our pieces, natures, tendencies, we may reach a very special state of personal growth.
There, memory and dream not only don’t forbid our participation in external reality, but become means of actively shaping it.