JANI CHRISTOU "LATE WORKS" (COLUMBIA, 1974)

Jani Christou was born at Heliopolis, N.E. of Cairo on January 9th, 1926, of Greek parents. He was educated at the English School in Alexandria, and began composing at an early age. In 1945 he travelled to England to study formal logic and philosophy at Kingās College, Cambridge under Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell (he attained an MA in philosophy in 1948). At the same time he studied music privately with H. F. Redlich, the distinguished musicologist and pupil of Alban Berg, and in 1949 travelled to Rome to study orchestration with F. Lavagnino. He also travelled widely in Europe, culminating for a short period in Zurich, where he met and attended lectures in psychology with Carl Jung....

Sadly the website dedicated to Jani Christou does not exist anymore.
But for  those who want to know more the 'web-archive' has kept the website from complete oblivion.
 https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204438/http://www.janichristou.com/


Bought this LP while on vacation with my family in Greece. Strolling through Athens I discovered a vinyl shop. While browsing through the inventory I didn't find anything which sparked me.
Then I asked for Xenakis, Christou...and here it was behind the cashier - albeit quite expensive.
I already wanted to turn away when surprisingly my family urged me three times to buy this LP.
Astonished and a bit perplexed I obeyed to their wish. It turned out that it was and still is to my own best.




Nelly Semitekolo, piano, percussion (A1)
Andreas Rodousakis, double bass (A1)
Spyros Sakkas, baritone (A2)
Gregory Semitecolo, voice-actor (B1)
Theodore Antoniou, conductor (A2, B1)
Hellenic Group of Contemporary Music (A1 - B1)


A1. Praxis For 12 (1966) For 11 strings, piano and percussion (9:02)
A2. Anaparastasis 1 (1968) For baritone and instrumental ensemble (10:50)
B1. Anaparastasis 3 (1968/69) For one actor, instrumental ensemble and tapes (9:56)
B2. Epicycle 2 (1968/69) Version for a record (9:45)


Text from Aeschylus' Agamemnon (track A2)

Tracks A1, A2 and B1 recorded at "Sifilms Studios" (Athen), end of September or beginning of October, 1970.

Tape for B2 prepared by the composer himself.

Columbia / His Master's Voice CSDG 68 (Greece, 1974)
(vinyl rip)