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Fanfare

In 42:1,1 reviewed a previous disc of music by the Greek composer (resident in England) Basil Athanasiadis (b. 1970) that also featured the ensemble Shonorities. Much of what I wrote in that review applies also to this new disc. Athanasiadis spent several years living in Japan, and his music draws on both aesthetics and musical influence from that country. This release, titled Book of Dreams, is described the composer as “a music collection featuring works that either directly or indirectly bear some relation to dreams, sleeping or in general, the state of subconsciousness.” (In that previous review, I wondered if a future disc might show his range with some of his works that display other influences, as they do seem to appear in his catalog. This is not that disc.)

These pieces are beautifully atmospheric and evocative, with strong and overt influence from traditional Japanese music. Only one piece here actually uses Japanese instruments, but as Book of Dreams II (2002) readily demonstrates, the composer evokes the sound of these Japanese instruments (in this case primarily koto and shakuhachi) completely within the Western medium of alto flute and string quartet. Two of the pieces are vocal works that set traditional haiku with fragile, delicate textures. Circles (2019) is an improvisatory piece for piano that blends in an electronic track based on a single tone of the composer’s voice; he mentions that the piano part was inspired by a set of calm, narrow streets in Tokyo and the electronic part by Buddhist chanting.

The most unusual piece is Dream of a Butterfly II (2015), which was a commission for an ex-tended solo piece for the discontinued Fender Rhodes electric piano (familiar from many years of jazz and pop studio recordings). Athanasiadis uses the Fender Rhodes to create a sonic environment rather different from the instrument’s familiar contexts. As this album feels very much like a continuation of the previous one (Soft Light), anyone who enjoyed that disc should certainly not hesitate in acquiring this one. Even though the increasing popularity of downloads seem to be making a physical product less and less relevant (alas), this disc again has an especially beautiful booklet, both in terms of the art design and the color photos that illustrate each piece.