As many culturally established nations worldwide, the Greeks have had their own times of experimenting with different kinds of music, from early 70s electronics to new wave, synth pop, industrial and minimal synth. Like in many cases, where there was no Internet to facilitate the access to a wider category of music (and eventually this music to a wider audience), any musician was doing the music that was being played in his head, that he/she thought would dictate a personal sense of both aesthetics and composition.
In the late ‘60s and 70s, nothing was predetermined, planned or strictly scheduled. It was mostly experimentations with different sounds and a new bunch of electronic equipment, such as the legendary TR 808 drum machine by Roland and analog synthesizers.
It is also the case of Lena Platonos (Λένα Πλάτωνος), a prolific Greek pianist and music composer born in Heraklion, Crete, who grew up in Athens. She is considered one of the pioneers in the Greek electronic music scene of the 1980s and she remains active today.
Though Lena has made a dozen of albums and EPs throughout her music career, American record label Dark Entries has recently chose to re-release the album 'Gallop' - the sixth LP from Lena’s discography (originally released in 1985) and the second record that she solely composed, produced and sang. The album is dedicated in memory of Alekos Patsifas, executive-director of Lyra, an independent record label based in Athens, Greece, formed in 1964.
Regarding the album, Lena says that “it’s a study in the mythology of urban population of the contemporary metropolis and also a gaze into the future life of it.” Well, yes, this is an intricate album if you’re trying to get a clue on what Lena is reciting throughout each of the songs. The record label gives a hint for this, suggesting that lyrics deal with heartbreak, dreams, desires, and astutely predict the way that computers and technology would infiltrate our society in the years to come.
That being said, the album opens up with An Unsolved Exercise In Physics, an exotic minimal synth /electro track hounding the listeners straight on the dance-floor. This track was also previously championed by the Greek label Into The Light Records, who included it in their compilation Into The Light: A Journey Into Greek Electronic Music, Classics & Rarities. Though it was made in ’85, most of the songs keep a - somewhat - fresh and contemporary feel on the instrumentals. Tracks like And We Hear "I Love You", What's New Pussy Cat?, Markos sets the listener on a concrete and elaborated electronic sound, while Love In Summer and Bloody Shadows From Afar set in the dub mood of ambient and electronica. And of course there’s the romantic/melodramatic track Rumanian Immigrants, which obviously couldn’t pass unobserved because of its’ theme evoked by the lyrics.
Another great release from the crates of Greek’s finest electronic music early stages, an album ahead of its time, both musically and conceptually.
Tracklist:
1. An Unsolved Exercise In Physics2. What's New Pussy Cat?
3. And We Hear "I Love You"
4. Markos
5. Love In Summer
6. Rumanian Immigrants
7. Liqueur
8. Witches
9. The Number 9
10. Bloody Shadows From Afar
11. Gallop
Greek:
A1. Μια Άσκηση Φυσικής Άλυτη
A2. Τι Νέα Ψιψίνα
A3. Κι Ακούμε "Σ'αγαπώ"
A4. Μάρκος
Α5. 'Ερωτες Το Καλοκαίρι
Β1. Εμιγκρέδες Της Ρουμανίας
Β2. Ηδύποτο Ρουμπίνι
Β3. Μάγισσες
Β4. Το 9
Β5. Αιμάτινες Σκιές Από Απόσταση
Β6. Γκάλοπ