premiered in 2022, Composers' Festival Amsterdam, performed by George Demetriou
Heavens was composed during months of isolation. When Covid19 Pandemic hit Amsterdam, suddenly I had almost no opportunities to access rehearsal spaces and musicians. Most of my days were spent in my home in IJburg, Amsterdam.
During this time I thought a lot about musicality outside music.
My apartment at the time was located at the top floor and had six large windows. As I considered nature of music in a non musical context, I meditated on the rapidly changing Amsterdam sky. I started to film it from my window.
Some days clouds were moving across the sky so slow that one thought they stood still. Some days thy were moving at much
faster tempo.
During summer months the sky would often
explode in the most vivid color chords.
Sometimes I would zoom in as much as my
camera allowed.
As the sun went down, it would cross paths
with the windmills and construction sites.
In place of months the pandemic extended for years.
By spring of 2022 I had collected footage of almost three years of Amsterdam sky.
For Composers' Festival 2022 I decided to compose a piece, in which I would allow the
musicality of these images come forth.
The isolation and home environment of pandemic forced me to find inspiration in the mundane.
The form in which the footage would be presented became a ritual of doing laundry.
In some languages "sky" and "heaven" share the same word.
Heavens became a composition about process of cleansing, labor of life and walking in and among heaven(s).
This was also the first composition in which I learnt that I believe there is no beginnings or ends, it is only our perception that is limited.
For the sound environment of Heavens, I left the original audio of the footage. I slowed it down, as I felt such stretch was emblematic of how the isolation of pandemic felt like.
I am aiming for future performances of Heavens, where a different footage, representative of the times, could be implemented. For example, war.
(Videographers of the live performance: Elia Kalogianni and Yorgos Kyvernitis)
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