Kinisi Festival of Sound brings together folk musicians and experimental sound artists with interests in Greece and the Balkans to create site-specific installations, performances, and concerts in the volcanic landscapes of Santorini. Over three days, music and sound will permeate through landscape, rock, and listeners in a series of participatory sonic events that celebrate community, listening, and music of virtuosic spirit.
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Composer and soundscape artist, Katerina Tzedaki (GR) opens the festival with a sound-walk through the medieval village of Pyrgos, introducing the evening’s concert performers, Dzambo Agushevi Orkestar (FYROM) as they play horns through the darkness. She will also collaborate in leading a four day sound-mapping workshop with RadioKit Collective (SRB) that takes place in sonically intriguing locations across the island.
On Saturday, La Ponta in Akrotiri will host a one-day workshop with Yannis Pantazis (GR) and the Kaynak Pipers Band (BG). In the early evening on Sunday, Bulgarian artist Ivan Shopov and Serbian composer Igor Čubrilović will create immersive multi-speaker compositions within the empty wine vats embedded within the rockface, spatializing sounds created with the Kaynak Pipers Band and a Serbian women’s choir.
Evening concerts taking place at the winery also include the music of the Sofia-based Kaynak Pipers Band (BG), The SAZE of Elena Gjika (ALB), the Dzambo Agushevi Orchestra (FYROM), and heirs of the reputable “Queen of the Gypsies” Esma Redžepova — the electric Stars of Prilep (FYROM). Within the extremely resonant main chamber of the winery, Vassilis Triantis (GR) and Kostas Karapanos (GR) play a set of acoustic Epirotica, and Christina Kiriakidou (GR) plays the Pontic Lyra.
LOCATION
Venetsanos Winery
http://venetsanoswinery.com/map/

Featuring concerts, jam sessions and workshops, Kinisi Festival of Sound offers opportunities for participation as well as spectatorship, and a journey through musical styles and genres in unique and breathtaking locations all over the island of Santorini. A volcanic island in the south of the Cyclades, Greece, Santorini is home to many people from around Greece and the Balkans as well as people with local origins. Although a well-known tourist destination, the festival takes place out of season, aiming to bring together visitors, locals, and workers in a moment of communal listening and appreciation of environment and culture.
The hub of the festival this year is Venetsanos Winery, carved out of the cliff-side overlooking the caldera, the volcano’s crater, and the main port of Athinios. Evening concerts will take place on the exterior terraces and within its cavernous tunnels.
Daytime events will take place in various locations: Pyrgos, Akrotiri, Megalochori, and beyond.
SCHEDULE
Thursday 20
11am-2pm Soundmapping workshop with Radio Kit (SRB) (various locations)
Friday 21
- 11am-2pm Soundmapping workshop with Radio Kit (various locations)
- 5:30pm Soundwalk with Katerina Tzedaki (GR) and Dzambo Agushevi Orkestar (FYROM)
Pyrgos, Santorini
- 8:00pm Kaynak Pipers Band Concert (BG)
- 9:00pm Dzambo Agushevi Orkestar (FYROM)
Venetsanos, Santorini
Saturday 22
- 11am-2pm Soundmapping workshop with Radio Kit (various locations)
- 2-5pm Bagpipe workshop with Yannis Pantazis (GR) & Kaynak Pipers (BG) La Ponta Venetian Tower, Akrotiri
- 7:30pm Kyriakidou Sisters (GR) on Pontic Lyra
- 8:30pm Saze of Elena Gjika (ALB)
- 9:30pm Stars of Prilep (FYROM)
Sunday 23
- 11am -2pm Soundmapping workshop with Radio Kit (various locations
- 6:30pm Igor Čubrilović with Bajke Singers (SRB)
- 7:30pm Vassilis Triantis & Kostas Karapanos (GR) – Epirotica
- 8:30pm Ivan Shopov with Kaynak Pipers (BG)
TICKETS
For ticket reservations: http://www.kinisifestival.com/tickets/
Selling tickets on site very soon. In the meantime you can reserve tickets for Kinisi Festival of Sound and an email will be sent as soon as they’re available for purchase. A three-day pass offered for only €35. This gets you into all of our installations and evening concerts for three whole days. All-access daily ticket for €15, however – if you book with a friend or two – that €15 goes down to an even more affordable €12.
CURATION
Ethnomusicologists, sound artists and founders of Kinisi Festival, Alyssa Moxley and Ramona Stout curate the festival by meeting participants face to face, through field research trips throughout Greece and the Balkans. Their aim is to bring together skilled musicians playing traditional improvisatory musical forms with sound artists creating alternative spaces for listening. Together they have travelled through Greece, FYROM, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria while researching for Kinisi.
Kinisi Festival features music of the folk – rather than folk music. Whilst some of our musicians rarely perform outside of their communities, playing for daily life, celebrations or communal occasions, others strive to rearrange our expectations of art and music through the juxtaposition and placement of environmental sounds. Collectively these contributions come together in a weekend of performances, sound installations, participations and collaborations.
To listen to field recordings from research trips and recordings from previous editions of the festival, follow Kinisi Festival on Soundcloud.
ALBUMS
Mazi Collective (the working collective of Ramona Stout and Alyssa Moxley) have released an album of writing, recording, and images from previous research trips.
The album was on the Wire’s 2015 “Picks of the Year” list and is available for purchase for €17 (hard copy CD with booklet) or €7 (high quality download with PDF). Write to kinisifestival@gmail.com to order.
More images of Unbound Atlas Album
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzHwg0epvNV7MHNReWlBczNDTU0
In addition Mazi Collective will release a vinyl album with material from the latest research journeys to coincide with the next edition of Kinisi Festival.
2016 EDITION
This year, the second year for Kinisi Festival, our curatorial theme is the “Porous,” a term that refers structure of the volcanic pumice rocks on the island, from which cave dwellings are carved, as well as the cultural landscape of a region, where song and memory have long migrated beyond physical borders.
Documentation from 2015 (Premiere year): https://vimeo.com/158788492
SOCIAL
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kinisisantorini/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KinisiFestival
Tumblr: http://www.unboundatlas.tumblr.com
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kinisifestival
SPONSORS
Thank you to our generous Crowdfunding Donors with past research campaigns.
Special Thanks to Martha L Jarman.








