Sfetsas, Kyriakos
Smog (2lp)
The newly established label Cat In The Room, created by Goodheart Productions, re-releases for the first time after almost fifty years the legendary work 'Smog' by Kyriakos Sfetsas, one of the most important Greek contemporary composers. 'Smog' is an electro-acoustic work in five parts of equal duration (18 minutes) divided into several variable sequences. It was composed as the music score for the ballet 'Smog' commissioned by the choreographer Michel Caserta. The work was premiered on October 18, 1974, by the Ensemble chorégraphique de Vitry at the Théâtre Jean-Vilar in Vitry-sur-Seine (Paris). As a musical work, it has acquired over the years the scope of a legend in the electro-acoustic-avant-garde scene, for its richness and value as a composition, the composer's ingenious use of the means available at the time regarding the production of electric sounds, and their combination with natural sounds, as well as for the four-channel recording and live performance. A new sound mastering and artwork was developed for this release in collaboration with the composer, whose liner notes are included on the cover. The title 'Smog' obviously refers to the famous London fog but, according to Mr. Caserta, it is more precisely "a fleeting and fragmented vision of things, events and characters, in bright, colored or opaque spaces. Visions truncated, mutilated, lost and found in a constant movement of shapes, rhythms and colors". If the first part of the above reflection evokes the work of the choreographer, that of the composer seems directly concerned with the second part, and we can imagine that it was a precious indicator for the composer who tells us, "imagine a music produced in a spatio-temporal context, the creation of which is possible thanks to the multiple simultaneous functions of three sectors: psyche-imagination, bodily pulsations and pictorial visions. The continual war evolving through these «multiple functions» creates the right preconditions to allow music spring from them, like an image of real life on earth, an event of a borderline expression emerging at a given moment in time and space."