Yannis Kyriakides — Antichamber

Yannis Kyriakides is a Cyprus born composer and sound artists who now resides in the uk. He composer/arrangers works that often mix electronic and acoustic elements in a creative and rewarding manner which join together: computer composition, unusual use of sometimes outdated or quirky modern technology and  hints of  traditional Greek Cypriot music. All to create a sound that is both sleek, modern, atmospheric and edgy yet ever so often takes a trip backwards to the past for hints at the music of Kyriakides homeland and youth.

‘Antichamber’ is a varied and rewarding two disc set which collects together ten pieces by Kyriakides that where written between the years 1995 and 2007. Disc one opens up with the sixteen and half minutes of 2007’s ‘Telegraphic’ which utilizes: telegraph keys, reorders, violin, clarinet, trombone, contrabass and computer all to create a track that base it’s harmonic structure and compositional rules around the shape and tone of code making. The tracks built around the six conventional  instruments  playing constantly fluctuating drones though close microphones, then they are routed into the mixing desk where each instruments amplification is connected to the telegraph to create this stop start, quite alien yet oddly harmonic and haunting music.

Mid-way through disc one we come to the title track which comes in just under the sixteen minute mark and finds Kyriakides utilizing the dramatic sawing string work of a string quartet that consists of two violins, a viola and a cello which Kyriakides feeds through a computer to create this chopping and shifting texture strings that’s undercut by the instrument echo and sustain. I guess could call it a deconstructed string quartet and again even though the piece is often jarring and shifting Kyriakides still keeps the tracks harmonic structure, but only just at times.

Over to the second disc and we have the disc opening track ‘Chasoids’ which comes from 2001 and slides in just around the sixteen and half minute mark. The piece utilizes an unusually mixture of violin, alto saxophone ,vibraphone and electronic sound tracking to creates this wonderful full and angular track that flirts with buoyant and quite playful jazz tone, modern classical string swoon, edgy electronica pitch shifting and general edgy yet harmonic composition. Directly after ‘Chasoids’ we have 2005 ‘U’ which finds the very bizarre mixture of controlled and manipulated sine waves and an eight piece male and female choir; the resulting track in both haunting, alien and at times unexpectedly beautiful in it’s mix of Sine waves and the wonders of the human voice.

Each disc of this set offers nearly up seventy five minutes  worth of Kyriakides creative, dramatic and often quite risky, but always rewarding work. The set also comes with an excellent and informative twenty four page booklet which discusses the collection in general and then goes on to discuses each piece in more depth, yet it never becomes over bearing or pretentious in it's write-ups; this makes the whole set very approachable to anyone whose interested in creative and experimental sound making that  has a harmonic and dramatic base. So in finishing off a wonderfully presented collection of varied, highly creative, yet often melody rich and dramatic sounding modern composition.