Bio

Thanos Chrysakis is a Greek composer, musician, producer and sound-artist. He is best known for his work in electronic and contemporary music, free improvisation, and electro-acoustic music. With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in numerous countries, including CYNETart Festival, Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden, M:AI (Museum für Architektur und Ingenieurkunst NRW)– Berlin, Festival Inventionen - TU Berlin,  Diapason Gallery – New York, PixelACHE festival of electronic art and subcultures - Helsinki , ohrenhoch - der Geräuschladen Gallery – Berlin Neukölln, Spazioersetti Gallery - Udine, XXII “Sound Ways” International New Music Festival – St. Petersburg, Artus Contemporary Arts Studio – Budapest, CRUCE Gallery – Madrid, Fylkingen – Stockholm, Relative (Cross) Hearings festival – Budapest, ZEPPELIN festival – Barcelona, Festival Synthése – Bourges, IVM (Institut Valencià de la Música) – Valencia, Festival Futura 2013 / 21 édition – Crest-Vallée de la Drôme-Diois, Xposed Club – Cheltenham, Festival de Música Contemporanea “Ramiro Guerra” – Monterrey, FACT Centre  – Liverpool, Association Ryoanji – Salle Des Fêtes - Ahun, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale/International Chosen Vale Trumpet Seminar 2014 — Hanover-New Hampshire, Frost School of Music - Clarke Recital Hall — Coral Gables/Florida, IBeam — Brooklyn - New York, Klang! Festival 2018 –Montpellier, UC San Diego - Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, California/San Diego, Petrekirche — Saint Petersburg, XIII Festival Internacional de Música Nueva – Monterrey, Born Creative Festival for Grown Ups! —  Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Nádor Terem – Budapest, Berner Münster – Bern, Fabbrica del Vapore – Milan, Konserthuset, Grünewaldsalen – Svensk Musikvår – Festivalen för Svensk Konstmusik — Stockholm,  Splendor – Amsterdam, VI European Clarinet Festival – Camerino - Italy, Logos Foundation – Ghent, Palacio de Bellas Artes - Mexico City, “On the Edge of Perceptibility - Sound Art” Műcsarnok Kunsthalle – Budapest, Spektrum – Berlin, Susikirtimai X – Vilnius, Festival del Bosque GERMINAL – Mexico City, Utzon Centre – Aalborg, Noise & Fury Festival – Moscow, Festival Futura 2017 / 25 édition – Crest -Drôme, Oosterkerk – Amsterdam, Havana Contemporary Music Festival 2018 – Havana, Areté Gallery – Brooklyn – New York, Center for New Music – San Francisco, LiteraturHaus – Copenhagen, Festival Futura 2020 / 28 édition – Crest -Drôme, Kanaal-Axel Vervoordt – Antwerp, Västerås Konstmuseum – Västerås, Open Days Festival, HUSET – Aalborg, Störung festival - Barcelona, BMIC Cutting Edge concert series - The Warehouse - London.

His music has been frequently aired by RAI Radio 3, BBC Radio 3, Radio Portugal Antenna 2, Radio Nacional de España Radio 3, Ireland's RTÉ Lyric FM, Polskie Radio (Warsaw), RTS — Radio Belgrade 3 (Serbia), Swedish Radio — Elektroniskt i P2 programme,  Zeit-Ton - OE1 - ORF (Austria), FM Brussel, Elektramusic (Strasbourg), LRT OPUS (Lithuania), CKCU FM - (Ottawa), Undae! Radio and Onda Sonora - Radio Circulo de Bellas Artes (CBA) (Madrid), Radio Horizon (Johannesburg), Motus/Radio Saint Ferréol — Les Territoires Du Son (la radio du Val de Drôme), Radio Nova (Oslo) among others. The Austrian radio-programme Zeit-Ton (ÖSTERREICHISCHER RUNDFUNK – ORF RADIO ÖSTERREICH 1) produced in 2022 two one-hour radio portraits, one for his work and another for the Aural Terrains label. The "Music for Bass Clarinets" concert that he organized on the 10th of December 2017 at café Oto was recorded by the BBC Radio 3 for the radio-programme Hear and Now. 

In addition, his texts have been also appeared in the Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press), the Vague Terrain Journal, and in the volumes The Book of Guilty Pleasures and The Idea of the Avant Garde - And What It Means Today (Manchester University Press) edited by Marc James Léger. He composes for electronic and acoustic  instruments, as well environmental sounds, focusing on the structural, aesthetic and transfigured capacity of sonic matter.

His formal training encompasses percussion (Dimitris Tzafestas), Sonic Arts (Hugh Davies) at the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts and a PhD in composition from Goldsmiths, University of London (EMS/Michael Young) as well as private studies in orchestration with Dmitri Smirnov. However it is the yearning of the creative praxis itself that transmitted the crucial aspect of artistic practice: that something has to be staked, that something must be ventured.

His work was amongst the selected works at the 32nd International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category œuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Composition Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon (the jury was constituted by Morton Subotnick (USA), François Bayle (France), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal).

He has written music for distinguished musicians such as Vincent Royer (viola), Lori Freedman (bass clarinet), Philippe Brunet (flugelhorn, trumpet), Tim Hodgkinson (bass clarinet), Wilfrido Terrazas (flutes), Chris Cundy (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet), the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Jason Alder (bass clarinet), Alexander Bruck (viola), Yoni Silver (bass clarinet), Natalia Pérez Turner (cello), Nadia Ratsimandresy (Onde), William Lang (alto trombone), Matias Karlsen Bjornstad (soprano saxophone), Liam Hockley (clarinets), Michael Pelzel (church organ), Kate Ryder (piano, prepared piano), Julie Kjaer (alto saxophone/alto flute).

Recent compositions amongst others, include: Equinox (2017), Γνώμων/Gnomon (for Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Jason Alder [four bass clarinets] 2016), Egress I ( for Liam Hockley [four pre-recorded and one live basset-horns] 2017), Umbrae (for the Konus Quartett, 2016), Μαύρο Φως/Dark Light (for Jason Alder [contra bass clarinet] 2017), Entwined Equinox (for the Shadanga Duo, 2016), Axis Mundi (for Elena Kakaliagou [horn] 2016, Terra Firma (for William Lang [alto trombone] 2015), Astraea (for the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, 2013), Undercurrent (for Liam Hockley [clarinet in A] 2014), Arché (for Chris Cundy [baritone saxophone] 2014), Nocturnal Flight (for Nadia Ratsimandresy [onde] 2014), Ingress (for Yoni Silver [bass clarinet] 2015), Canto Intrare (for Philippe Brunet [duo trumpets] 2015), Μήτε το Κύμα / Νé da'll onde (for Wilfrido Terrazas & Natalia Pérez Turner [bass flute / cello] 2014].

He has recorded/performed with a number of improvisers including among others Wade Matthews, Dario Bernal-Villegas, Jerry Wigens, James O'Sullivan, Philip Somervell, Jamie Coleman, Chris Cundy, Zsolt Sőrés, Sebastian Lexer, Javier Pedreira, Julie Kjaer, Christian Kobi, Christian Skjødt, Yoni Silver, Ernesto Rodrigues, Abdul Moimême, Ove Volquartz, Steve Noble, Joe Wright, Dawid Frydryk, Sue Lynch, Charlotte Keeffe, Caroline Kraabel. Furthermore, he has also closely collaborated with the visual artists Pascal Dombis, and Villő Turcsány. Since 2007 he operates the record-label 'Aural Terrains' focusing in electroacoustics, composed and improvised music.

He has held residencies at the Visby Centre for Composers (twice), the DAR residency for composers and sound artists in Druskininkai (Lithuania) and at the Artus Contemporary Arts Studio in Budapest. His work has been supported by PRS for Music Foundation and the Swedish Art Council.