Warped Passages: Lena Platonos

Sabotage (Σαμποτάζ) (1981) ...

Greek new wave ... Lena Platonos introduced electronic instruments into Greek pop music. This was her debut album, with Savina Giannatou and Giannis Palamidas... (Lyrics: Marianini Kriezi.)

Στον αστερισμό του πιγκουίνου (Ston asterismo tou pigkouinou) ...

"...her true debut was the album ‘Sabotage’ in 1981, created in collaboration with Marianina Kriezi and Savina Yannatou. The album marked and innovative change in Greek music by the strong use of synthesizers, with which Platonos had begun to experiment with. Simultaneously Platonos worked on a project featuring 13 poems by Kostas Karyotakis set to music. The work was actually completed before ‘Sabotage’ but released after on insistence of the director of Lyra records, Alekos Patsifa.

The experimenting with electronics continued with the three subsequent albums she made in the eighties. Her lyrics are often surreal poetry telling about daily life and personal relationships. In 1986 she released the album ‘Lepidoptera’ filled with nursery rhyme lyrics of Giani Rontari. Another project influenced by the world of children was the 1989 adaptation of the Hans Anderson fairytale ‘The nightingale and the emperor’" ... europopmusic.eu ...

Πτήση 201 (Ptisi 201)...

"DB: In the eighties we used to have a festival in Holland called contra-tones (Tegentonen) and Lena would have fitted right in. The festival featured artists that were seeking the borders of regular pop and rock and mixed them with avant-garde, poetry and experimentalism. In Greece Lena did just that picking up Greek tradition and doing something completely new with it. And adding electronics was just the start. Trying to link her another (European) artist is almost impossible 'cause Lena made a whole niche for herself. Just for perspective you could say she is on the experimental side of Anne Clark or Laurie Anderson"

Kinoumena Skitsa ...

Xίλιες και μια νύχτες σινεμά (Hilies kai mia nyhtes cinema)...