Eutopia
Metatron Studio World Tour 2024 Part Three: August-Sept 2024
Marina and I are on a whirlwind tour focused on music and art residencies. This is Metatron unleashed! Watch out world — our little content studio is cranking out projects, individually and collectively. Here is the travelogue from our time in Greece August 24–Sept 16.
We had just spent a wild three plus weeks in France centered around a residency at the Performing Arts Forum. After refreshing ourselves in Paris and Brussels, it was time for our second residency. Marina found an artist space in Kavala, a lovely seaside town in eastern Greece.
We made our way from Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, along the coast to Kavala, and settled into Eutopia, an up and coming spot that takes three artists per session (spouses and partners welcome). The focus of this residency was squarely on Marina; I was just along for the ride. Thankfully the place has a great digital piano and classical guitar on hand, so I figured I wouldn’t be bored and could keep working on The Golden Road (my newest concept album).
First order of business: find a store that sells chicken wire, or as the locals call it, σύρμα κοτόπουλου (pronounced sýrma kotópoulou — we know how to say chicken wire in way too many languages now). After some anxious googling and several hardware store visits, we hit the jackpot, and Marina got to work on the preliminaries. We also met our residency mates, Caroline and Anders, coincidentally both Aussies, a painter and photographer, respectively.
The residency brief was to create art inspired by the sea and local Greek culture. After a wee bit of vision questing, Marina came up on the idea of creating a mermaid. For my part, I played artist assistant, helping her with various parts of her trade-secret wire sculpting process.
In theory I was going to be writing new music, too. But it just wouldn’t come. The first couple of weeks were extremely frustrating on this score. I hid behind needing to find some extra gear — not a MIDI-to-USB adapter in sight, sigh. How was I supposed to capture all the brilliance I was going to generate at this nice piano?! Well, at some point I had to move on from this side quest and accept that I was not going to produce anything major whilst in Greece. But did I have to produce anything? Maybe the universe was telling me to chill out after grinding so hard at PAF the month before. Just enjoy the amazing scenery, the beautiful beaches, and the great food and local wine. And be there for Marina.
We also had some time for tourism, including an amazing visit to Philippi, the city of Philip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great’s father. Being among the ruins of such a once-great civilization was a stark reminder of the impermanance of empires. I think this is going to be a recurring theme as I develop the music for The Golden Road.
Sirena
Marina ended up creating an absolutely stunning mermaid sculpture.
The Greek word for mermaid is gorgona (γοργόνα), which is quite poignant for this piece because it is part of a larger series that reclaims the narrative of the female in myth. In mythology, women are always supporting characters or antagonists: sirens, damsels in distress, witches etc. In Muses and Monsters, Marina challenges the idea, becoming her own muse and shero.
At the end of the residency, we had an art opening for locals and friends of Alex, the owner of the space. In preparation for the opening, Marina wanted to do a shoot of the sculpture on the sea. We found a perfect little secluded beach and I did a really beautiful shoot of Marina and the sculpture (if I do say so).
As I mentioned, I was more than happy to play assistant. But then Marina had one more assignment for me. She asked me to make a soundtrack for a short slideshow she wanted to present along with the sculpture at the opening. Finally! Purpose… I found some initial inspiration plucking out a pentatonic riff in 5/4 meter on my little keyboard controller, and quickly expanded it into a soundscape chamber music piece titled Sirena. Give it a listen here.
I also wrote a bit of verse to go along with it
So, it wasn’t a total bust for me after all. It was nice to take a break from pushing so hard, but it was also great to be able to crank something out on short notice. I still got it. Check out Marina’s Instagram for the full short film and a snippet of the music.
And as it turned out, Sirena is now going to be an integral part of The Golden Road. The new concept album is about an alchemical journey of transformation. And I’ve been on such a journey during this extended road trip. Sirena finds me coming face to face with my own relationship to the female: male gaze, desire, seduction, obsession, compulsion, self-control, predation, domination, so many other things. I’m now working on a full band version of the song based on the soundscape piece. I will have a lot more to share on this topic as the record unfolds.
And we made it to the art opening! The artists put on a great show.
Residency number two — in the books!
It was almost time to start heading home… but there was a snag.
TO BE CONTINUED
