Menelaos Peistikos: Complete Solo Piano Works

This album brings together my complete catalogue of solo piano works composed between 2013 and 2024, presented in an almost chronological order, from Hazy Horizon to Contemplation on Purple Horizon. Across these works, a gradual transformation unfolds—both musical and existential—shaped by shifting harmonic languages, evolving aesthetic concerns, and an increasing movement toward inward reflection.

The music can be broadly divided into two creative periods.

The first period (2013–2021) is marked by exploration and contrast. The harmonic language ranges from extended tertian harmony (VAGUES) to free atonality (ON THE VISION AND THE RIDDLE), while the expressive world shifts from cinematic contemplation (HAZY HORIZON) to a Schnittkean juxtaposition of light and darkness (ECHO LONTANO). This period reflects an ongoing search, a restless movement through diverse musical and emotional landscapes.

The second period (2022–present) adopts a more economical approach to musical materials. It is unapologetically tonal and modal, at times leaning toward a contemporary romanticism (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA – IN MEMORIAM SANDY, SANDY’S VALSE – THE CHALK SWAN). Yet its deeper aim is not sentimentality, but the creation of a space for solitary contemplation. Central to this period is what I describe as the Life/Death Archetype: a state of inner silence where time and space dissolve into oneness.

One could say that the music of the first period remains largely within the realm of Reality — the world of reason, ego, and rational knowledge, the world of Maya: real in everyday life, yet ultimately illusory. The music of the second period seeks to move beyond this realm, toward what might be called the Life/Death Archetype or Truth — a felt sense of unity and presence.

1) HAZY HORIZON (2013): The composition is about the uncertainty of tomorrow. The smooth beginning symbolizes a pleasant dream, a world where there are no time and rush. While the piece gradually comes to an end, a transition is made slowly from the dreaming world to the anxiety of reality. From this moment, the time is activated and keeps pushing the sound forward. The hopes and the optimism are constantly fading away.

2) TANGO NOSTALGICO (2014): I was exposed to tango music and dance from a very young age, watching my parents dance at festivals and milongas, and often filming them as they rehearsed at home. Tango Nostalgico is inspired by and dedicated to my parents, Sandy and Dimitris, my beloved tango dancers.

3) VAGUES (2014):

"I choose to sink in Delusion. It is more familiar to me;

mysterious and frighteningly serene,

but for sure

more charming than the Truth"

M.P.

4) ON THE VISION AND THE RIDDLE (2016): A three-movement work inspired by Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, particularly the chapters from the third part of the book, “The Wanderer” and “On the Vision and the Riddle.” The composition translates into sound a descent into existential confrontation.

The musical language moves through tension, lyricism, and fragmentation, reflecting Nietzsche’s imagery—violent and poetic, destructive and illuminating. I perceive these two chapters as a mystical and dark atmosphere, as an imaginary abysmal, majestic internal world of the human mind.

5) ECHO LONTANO (2020): Echo Lontano was commissioned by Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and MOMus (Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki). It was composed for the purpose of framing a modern exhibition at the MOMus which illustrates fine art in the style of comics from several contemporary Greek sketch artists. These sketches depict specific events of manifestation of racism and violence against social minorities and protesters in Greece caused by the neo-nazi political party "Golden Dawn" and attempt to decry and criticize these actions and fight neo-nazism, nationalism and racism in Greece. The motive of the exhibition is "Put an X in Golden Dawn".

The composition was premiered and videotaped inside this exhibition. In my opinion, the combination of Art and violence in the museum hall consist of a double paradox. First, there is an internal contrast in the sketches; on the one hand, they are aesthetically pleasing while on the other hand, they depict violence, neo-nazism and racism which is something abhorrent and censurable. Secondly, the hall of the museum is white and minimal and has a peaceful atmosphere, totally in contrast with the sketches on its walls. I perceive this exhibition as an attempt to confront violence with peace and the power of Art.

My aim was to reprove violence by bringing its opposite; peace and its beauty. However, when I watched closely at these sketches, I thought of the impact that the violent assaults of "Golden Dawn" members have on the mental state of the victims and I concluded that violence is something that is difficult to be easily forgotten. Beyond its stigmas on their physical health, its effects are still present on the psychological health of the victims. Violence does not outweigh peace in Echo Lontano. There are only small fragments of it, dissonant and mechanical in their presence. Hope and peace are the cure which tries to extinguish violence making it look only like a distant echo.

6) HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA [IN MEMORIAM SANDY] (2022): In this piece, as in huge majority of the next ones that followed, there are no actual program notes. As mentioned above, the second period of my music attempts to depict something that I call the Life/Death Archetype, which emerges in any version of the Truth that one feels; be it Love, Pain, Grief and there are many other gates to It.

Happy Birthday Mama was written for my mother's 62nd birthday at February the 16th. I was then away from my home-country Greece, doing my Master's in Toronto. The composition was an improvisation recorded in my phone the day of her birthday which then I sent to her. During its performance I could not stop crying; endless nostalgia and love for her coexist in the music. Nobody who knew her could ever imagine what would happen one year and a half later.

7) SEA AFTER TWILIGHT (2023): Dedicated to the memory of my mother Sandy (1960-2024). The piece reflects the feeling of experiencing the sea’s purple tone after sunset.

8) SANDY'S VALSE – THE CHALK SWAN (2024): Written after my mother’s death, this piece is an expression of both of my grief and my love for her. It is dedicated to her memory.

9) NEPHELOMA (2024): Nepheloma is a one-movement composition for solo piano commissioned by and dedicated to pianist Fani Karagianni.

The composition draws its title from the homonymous painting Nepheloma (1992, "Νεφέλωμα") of Greek fine artist, director and writer Apostolos Kilessopoulos (1942-) which is exhibited at the National Gallery of Athens (Alexandros Soutzos Museum). The painting depicts a Nebula phenomenon. Blue is the main colour at Kilessopoulos' painting, darker hues occur at the bottom while lighter ones at the upper part. It is blurry, cloudy, indistinct, foggy and luminous at the same time. Short amounts of different colours, mainly yellow and red emerge in a scattered way above the blue surface.

As a synesthetic composer, in some colours that really resonate with me I can "see" specific scales. Blue is depicted with 5 notes of the Ab minor scale, Ab-Bb-Cb-Db-Eb. This scale symbolizes the blue that prevails in much of the painting. As a consequence, these notes are used in the whole duration of the composition, depicting the painting's theme. F flat note symbolizes the red, while F natural added note symbolizes the yellow sparkles of the painting. G natural adds to the darker hue of the blue canvas. The rest of the added notes – foreign to the scale – which gradually occur more, symbolize the tiny and more indistinct variations of colours depicted in equally tiny portions on the painting.

10) CONTEMPLATION ON PURPLE HORIZON (2024): This is the final work of the album, where this archetype finds its fullest expression. From the most fragile silence to the most dramatic intensity, sadness, pain, love, grief, serenity, emptiness, and existential tension are revealed as different facets of a single experience. It is dedicated to the memory of my mother Sandy (1960-2024).

Across cultures and centuries, many words have pointed toward this experience: Satori, Nirvana, the Eternal Present, Tao, Ataraxia, Silent Knowledge, Meditation. None fully capture it. To describe with rational language something that ultimately transcends rationality would be futile. My hope is simply that the listener may sense — or perhaps see — this Truth through the music itself.

This album is dedicated to the memory of my mother Sandy (1960–2024).