Mount Athos, known as the «Holy Mountain,» is a monastic peninsula in northeastern Greece, central to Eastern Orthodox monasticism for over a millennium. Its twenty monasteries house around 2,000 monks dedicated to prayer and worship, which songs have echoed across the Aegean Sea for centuries, heard only by visiting pilgrims, isolated from conventional time and global events.

After several months of research, and several visits to the retired community, we are happy to present the new project «Athos : Echoes from the Holy Mountain» dedicated to this liturgic music and repertoire that seems to be evolving outside the usual boundaries of time and space. Rooted in Byzantine chant, this a cappella tradition essential to monastic life featuring intricate yet serene melodies designed to facilitate prayer and contemplation, using a system of modes and scales to create a meditative atmosphere.

Trans-disciplinary, this effort of documentation also comprehends an artistic re-interpretation aspect inviting contemporary Greek and foreign artists to reflect on the subject.

A musical compilation featuring original recordings from the 1960s from the Samuel Baud-Bovy ethnomusicological collection held in the MEG sound archives (LP2, side A) and recordings made in 2022 (LP2, side B), capturing the essence of liturgical music on Mount Athos.

The compilation also includes new compositions (LP1, sides A and B) inspired by these recordings by artists such as :
Holy Tongue (UK), Jay Glass Dubs (GR), Prins Emanuel & Inre Kresten Grupp (SWE), Jimi Tenor (FI), Gilb’r (FR), Daniel Paleodimos (GR), Esma & Murat Ertel (TUR) and Organza Ray (GR/US).

A trilingual book in English, Greek and French, comprising essays, articles, photographs and artistic contributions, featuring contributors such as Stratos Kalafatis, Theodore Psychoyos, Tefra90, Father Damaskinos Ulkinuora, Prof. Thomas Apostolopoulos, Makar Tereshin, Phaedra Douzina-Bakalaki, Michelangelo Paganopoulos and Alberto Cameron.

The release of the book and the record will be followed by a cycle of exhibitions and conferences, deploying FLEE’s year-long research on Mount Athos, as well as its numerous commissioned artworks.

FLEE006/MEG-AIMP 123 "Athos: Echoes from the Holy Mountain" will be available worldwide through www.fleeproject.com, and selected retailers across the globe from the 27.06.2024 on.

The double album on 33t vinyl and CD will be on sale at ME

About FLEE :
FLEE is an independent cultural engineering platform dedicated to the documentation and enhancement of hybrid cultures. Functioning as a record label, publishing house and exhibition organizer, it focuses on shedding the light on sub-cultures, while making them interact with contemporary artistic approaches through a critical point of view.

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