Musical Poiesis, Erotic Cosmology, and Commodity Life: The Lena Platonos Project

Published
Made in Greece -- Global Popular Music Series (Routledge Press)

Essay on the music and poetry of Lena Platonos published in the volume Made in Greece, edited by Dafni Tragaki, and published in the Global Popular Music series of Routledge Press in 2018

ABSTRACT

Lena Platonos is an accomplished pianist and the first Greek composer of electronic music who also qualifies as a songwriter, and even a singer-songwriter, but in ways that certainly stretch the popular imagination. Sun Masks marks the departure point of the musical poiesis that is uniquely Lena Platonos. In the typical gesture underlining the need of minor cultures to place themselves in an international framework, Lena Platonos is often described as the Laurie Anderson of Greek music. The music bears a certain contrapuntal theatricality between esoterically reflective melodies and aggressive frontal rhythms shattering asphyxiating social frameworks with a satiric whirlwind.

Book can be found here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315749075-11/musical-poiesis-erotic-cosmology-commodity-life-stathis-gourgouris

Music that goes with it, here: http://www.globalpopularmusic.net/?page_id=2052

 

Cover photo from a joint performance at the Montreal Pop Festival (September 27, 2018)