“Sima Vounou”, (Mountain Signal): when the davul becomes part of the landscape

Alexandros Rizopoulos brings a slow Macedonian dance to Patmos, seeking within its rhythm the memory, the body and the geography of the place.

There are musicians who treat tradition as a repertoire and others who approach it as a living field of research. Alexandros Rizopoulos clearly belongs to the latter category. A percussionist and composer, with a background in music and architecture, he has devoted a significant part of his work to the study of the rhythmic idioms of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. His activities range from concerts and performances to workshops on the davul and percussion, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between rhythm, movement and performance.

In ‘Sima Vounou’, (Mountain Signal), this exploration takes the form of a solo acoustic performance, centred on the davul, the voice, the zanfona and idiophones. He presents it as a ‘Slow Macedonian dance’. This is not merely a reproduction of a traditional tune, but a performance-based exploration of what a rhythm might mean today when it is detached from its original social context and takes on a new space, time and physicality. The work draws on rhythmic and vocal memories from the southern Balkans, from songs in Greek, Vlach and Slavic Macedonian, bringing to light stories of bodies, animals, waters and mountains that tradition has not always preserved in the way they actually happened.

This approach is in keeping with Rizopoulos’s entire artistic journey, where tradition meets improvisation, contemporary creation and the physicality of music. In this performance, the music flows entirely naturally, without any electrical amplification. The davul acts as an autonomous vehicle for rhythm, memory and physical presence, whilst the zanfona opens up another dimension of time, one that is more continuous and internal. Interspersed between the musical sections are brief readings, like echoes of songs: short narratives about what was left out of the song, yet continued to exist in the body, in the step, in the skin, in the water and in the sound, ultimately leading to a more physical and ecstatic performance.

The “Mountain Signal’ will be performed in Patmos, in a special performance at the ‘Patoinos’ agro-ecological vineyard in Petra, on Tuesday 1 September at 7.30 pm. In a place where cultivation, the land, wine, seeds and memory come together in a gentle and vibrant way, this encounter takes on yet another dimension: an ancient, almost primordial sonic trace meets the Patmos landscape. During the evening, wine from Patoinos will be served, whilst the performance will be perfectly complemented by the ritualistic sculptures and ceramics of the artist Maria Koubourli. The rhythm thus becomes a complete, multi-sensory experience.

Arrival time 19:15 – start time 19:30 – Enquiries: +306934095253 and +306984501427