Kraak Helder special: Constantine Skourlis

For nearly 2 years, the 28-year-old musician and art curator lived in self-exile and recorded in the remote Eastern Greek islands. In the island of Kalymnos, he spent his days exploring and gathering field recordings inside a network of caves, collecting found sounds and manipulating natural acoustics. In the famed island of Lesbos, he recorded all winter through torrential storms (If you’ve been to Lesbos in the wintertime, you know it literally never stops raining). In all, the recording process consisted largely of modular systems, foley recordings, strings , grand piano, live drumming and orchestral percussion.

Inspired by Steve Reich, Henri Bergson, Mika Vainio and a refugee crisis that would sweep Lesbos following the recordings, “Hades” sonically stands at the bleeding edge of modern classical, metallic drone, dark ambient, and fuzz.

Constantine’s latest record comes after his collaborative album with pianist Christos Sakellaridis as the ambient duo Ekkert, which was released on Bastakiya Tapes and was subsequently featured in outlets like FACT and Juno Download. Alongside his solo career, Constantine has worked on numerous music and sound projects for contemporary dance, most recently UNCIA, which will premiere at the renowned Sophiesaele in Berlin this April.