Christos Anastassiou - Composer, Conductor

Artistic Practice & Compositional Approach

For me, music is a means of discovery and creation — a way of exploring both the sonic and the spiritual world. My compositional work is centered on contemporary classical, experimental, and electroacoustic music, with a strong emphasis on research and innovation. I do not adhere to any single compositional “school”; each work is conceived as an autonomous microcosm, with its own language, technique, and narrative force.

My personal style is often marked by dramatic intensity and narrative dimension. There is frequently a sense that the listener is following a story unfolding through sound — rich in ambiguities and auditory illusions. The forms are usually free, allowing the music to flow naturally, avoiding strictly linear structures.

Texture, timbre, and rhythmic transformation occupy a central role in my aesthetic. My compositions are characterized by multilayered structures, dynamic complexity, and meticulous orchestration. Special attention is given to microstructural detail and the scenography of sound.

Influenced by European modernism and spectralism, I seek new performance techniques, unconventional timbres, and ways of harnessing sonic energy within the spatiotemporal frame of the composition. The spiritual dimension, aesthetics, and semiotics play an essential role, weaving together a multidimensional work with existential and metaphysical undertones.

Electroacoustic music represents, for me, an inexhaustible field of experimentation and creative exploration. Through the use of sound processing software, algorithmic techniques, and artificial intelligence, I explore sonic realms that transcend the boundaries of traditional performance and musical perception. Technology is not merely a tool but a co-creator — a living entity actively participating in the creative dialogue.

I also incorporate audiovisual media, augmented and virtual reality technologies (AR/VR), holograms, wraparound environments, and interactive live electronics systems. The composition and presentation of a work as an environment–experience blends sound, image, and real-time interaction.

My work often draws inspiration from fundamental human experiences — such as birth, death, and the expansion of consciousness. Influences are drawn from both Eastern and Western philosophical and spiritual traditions. Music functions as an inner language, capable of communicating with the unconscious, collective memory, and existential questions.

I follow an independent and experimental path, beyond established schools and conventions. I am always in search of new forms of expression, where music is not merely sound, but a structural element of a broader, multilayered artistic and spiritual totality. My work seeks to generate multidimensional, unique, and participatory experiences, constantly redefining the boundaries of musical imagination. It often takes the form of an experiential space, where spirituality, metaphor, and allegory coexist with scientific precision.

My music becomes a meeting point of art and science, where cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, philosophy of mind, engineering, programming, quantum physics, mathematics, music informatics, acoustics, psychoacoustics, chaos theory, anthropology, statistics, biology, pedagogy, and all forms of art and scientific inquiry converse within a broader interdisciplinary field.

In this context, composition extends beyond aesthetic intention, integrating scientific methods, analytical thinking, and technological tools that shape new conditions for listening.

The use of audiovisual media, the design of multisensory environments, and the creation of mixed and multimedia works are an integral part of my artistic practice. Image, sound, and technology collaborate to produce a holistic artistic outcome.

With a continuous path of autonomous creative exploration, I remain open to experimentation and the questioning of dominant aesthetic and technical paradigms, without aligning with any specific school or ideological current

His works that were recently premiered (2022 – 2025)

Palintropon Opus 129 (2022), for Small Chamber Orchestra, Athens – Epidaurus Festival 7-6-2022

Prudentia 145 (2024), for mixed electroacoustic music and String Quartet (Greek Composer’s Union - Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera, first performance at the concert - tribute, ''Michalis Adamis'' 23/05/2024).

Modus Opus 146 (2024), for mixed Electroacoustic Music, Flute and Visual Media, (Greek Composer’s Union - F. Nakas Concert Hall 26/05/2025).

His works have been broadcast by the Third Programme of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) (2018–2023)

• On Dionysis Mallouchos’ program “Tuesday at 3 on the Third”, on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 3:00 p.m., a live concert featuring works by composer Christos Anastasiou was broadcast on national radio and online from Studio E of the Hellenic Radio, with audience attendance.

Works:

• Stochasmos, Op. 38 for solo flute (1992)
• Makron, Op. 100 for solo flute (2012)
• Monologue, Op. 44 for solo clarinet (1994), world premiere
• Intermezzo, Op. 64 for solo piano (2001)
• Nomion, Op. 116 for violin and piano (2016)

Performers:

• Vangelis Stathoulopoulos, flute
• Panagiotis Sioras, clarinet
• Kostis Karitzis, violin
• Angelika Papanikolaou, piano

• On the program “Musical Moments in Time” with Katia Kalitsounaki on December 6, 2018, his work Makron, Op. 100 for solo flute (2012), was broadcast.
  Performed by Iwona Glinka, flute. Recorded in Warsaw, 2016.
• On July 4, 2023 (13:00–14:00), the program “In Search of the Lady with the Strychnine” with Christos Papageorgiou, featured a live broadcast and discussion with the composer about several of his works and contemporary music more broadly.

Works presented:

1. String Quartet No. 2, Op. 92 (2009), duration: 11:30
    Performed by “ExQuartet”, recorded in Poland, 2020
2. Stochasmos, Op. 38 for solo flute (1992), duration: 8:25
    Flute: Iwona Glinka, recorded in Poland, 2016
3. Nomion, Op. 116 for violin and piano (2016), duration: 15:51
    Kostis Karitzis, violin – Angelika Papanikolaou, piano
4. Makron, Op. 100 for solo flute (2012), duration: 5:00
    Flute: Iwona Glinka, recorded in Poland, 2016
5. Diastasis, Op. 74 for large chamber orchestra (2006), duration: 14:00
    ALEA III, conductor Theodoros Antoniou, Boston, USA (2006)
6. Echomorphes, Op. 117 for flute and vibraphone (2017), duration: 7:12
    Iwona Glinka (flute), Leszek Lorent (vibraphone), recorded in Poland, 2018
7. Monologue, Op. 44 for solo clarinet (1994), duration: 8:50
    Clarinet: Panagiotis Sioras, recorded at ERT, 2018 (Tuesday at 3 on the Third)
8. Intermezzo, Op. 64 for solo piano (2000), duration: 14:25
    Piano: Angelika Papanikolaou, recorded at ERT, 2018 (Tuesday at 3 on the Third)
9. Inner Spirit, Op. 122 for flute, violin, viola, cello (2019), duration: 12:12
    Iwona Glinka (flute), Paweł Kapica (violin), Michał Markiewicz (viola),
    Krzysztof Pawłowski (cello) — recorded by “NeoQuartet” in Poland, 2022
10. Lament for Theodoros Antoniou, Op. 121 (2020), duration: 3:30
     Flute: Iwona Glinka, recorded in Poland, 2021

Program Notes:

String Quartet No. 2 Op. 92 (2009), Ex Quartet, recorded Poland 2018

Work based on the Fibonacci sequence. Use of proportions in the structure, rhythmic, metrical and phthonic organization of the work.

The post-series orientation, the material drawn from pitch class sets based on the Fibonacci sequence, the free use of intervals mainly of the semitone, the constant change of use of bows, pizzicatti, tremolos , and the extensive use of harmonics, aim to create a constantly changing development and tonal change.

The successive transformations, the default circular spatial permutation, (rotation), the constant rearrangements of the motivic tonal classes, the use of mirror parts, the rules and the derivation of new subsets, constantly create new geometric displacements and symmetries.

The complexity, the compositional relationships of the sound intensities, the complex rhythmic variations, and the continuous metrical transformations, create changes of the rhythmic and tonic-melodic shapes and a condensation of the harmonic and counterpoint sound material, are the structural elements of the work and create another dimension in the structure and aesthetics of the work.

String Quartet No. 2 is a work of exceptional difficulty, and demands particularly high skils by the performers.

"Birth, culmination, depletion of energy and decomposition of elements (classic case of entropy)...freezing in time..."

Echomorphes for flute and vibraphone Op. 117 (2017) Phasma Music CD Daleth, Flute Iwona Glinka -Vibraphone Leszek Lorent

The musical material of the work is cells of three and four chords which are expanded with continuous rearrangements, combined with modal elements.

The organization of the rhythmic parameter, the tonal development, the elements of (expanded) repetition and the constantly increasing complexity, describe the interaction of the sound parameters, which shape the form of the work.

A work with a strong rhythmic character, complex rhythmic treatment, development and metric changes, it seeks a specific result while also demonstrating the increased skill requirements of the score.

Elampsi Op. 126 for solo violin (2021)

Shine. Psychic radiance and illumination by God power. As the light of knowledge, the radiance belongs to the tradition of Western light imagery, where the knowledge of truth is associated with a shining clear light. The epistemology of St. Augustine identifies the understanding of divine truth with radiance, the influx of light.

The organization of the sound material is done by groups (group composition) and sets of tonal classes (pitch class sets) in a combinatory way and with the possibility of mutation in any order, the ways of processing the voices of each group, the rearrangement of the tonal material, the circular isometrics transformations, the tonal displacement of the original sets of tonal classes, complementarity and combinability, result in the formulation of relationships and properties, which determine the rhythmic and temporal organization of the work.

The constant changes of the way the bow is used, the extensive use of harmonics, the frequent change of dynamics and the use of specific types of spatial content, create interactive processes, which dynamically affect the sound material and the form of the work.

''Anavasis'' for solo Tuba (2021) /Dedicated to George- Theodoros Rarakos

Rhythmic models, polymetry and metric transformations that create a horizontal polymetric and polyrhythmic form.

Algorithmic procedure using sets of step classes. Symmetry is achieved by continuous rearrangements, tonal shifts (transpositions), conjunctiveness and complementarity (complement), changing the orientation of melodic ensembles, circular shifts (rotation) and variations.

One type of space content is mainly used, the minor 2nd and its inversions.

The repetition of melodic intervals and the continuous use of the semitone create a condensation of the dissonant sound material and are rendered with a special character taking into account the limitations of the instrument, with the aim of sound enrichment and together with the other techniques create a plan of continuous melodic-rhythmic variation.