EVEN THE CHIMERA’is the debut album by Wild Terrier Orchestra, a new project by Dimitris Papadatos, aka Jay Glass Dubs, based on interchangeability and open improvisation. A newer, freer incarnation of Papadatos’ creative intent, the projects act more like an open container of dsparate and idiosyncratic contributions from a mutable cast of musicians and artists. Often times not provided according to a pre-planned structure, these contributions are actually more likely to arrive in the form of free improvisations, unconnected musical segments and fragmented splinters of sound. This allowes Papadatos to aggregate all the constituent parts according to an intuitive process that bridges between the detailed craft of electronic music production and surrealist techniques such as the Cadavre Exquis and the Cut-Up. It’s both a harmonization of contrasting tones and a research for commonality within difference, although none of the wild terriers are ever nearly tamed.
Unsurprisingly, the main inspiration for this new chapter came from a pinnacle of avantgarde literature: poet Andreas Embirikos’, considered Greece’s first surrealist and all-out paradoxical figure. Specifically, this release is guided and instigated by his poem OKTANA, in which Embirikos inscribes a manifesto for a hedonistic utopia years ahead of any accelerationist theories, bursting with contradicting presences and mutating identities. Written in the aftermath of the Greek civil war, the poem calls for a time of eternal poetry and spiritual intoxication that can only be reached through a painful process of violent deconstruction.
Thus, EVEN THE CHIMERA was born: a culmination of Papadatos’ decades long research on traditional Greek and Byzantine music, free jazz and free improvisation. Firmly spread between two side-long tracks, the contributions of American singer and musician Cruel Diagonals on vocal duties as well as Greek artist and musician Fotini Korre on ney suggest the existence of a filament that connects the west and the east through the creation of ‘’possible musics’’. This happens in accordance to Papadatos’ practice of a counterfactual approach to the process of what music history dictates. It is also directly shaped by the musician’s frequent dwellings in the isle of Cyprus, a land in which the clash of worlds and culture has often taken both violent and beautiful shapes. The long drones, acoustic ghosts and unbalanced choirs that form the album seem to call from the Mediterrean itself, not only from its history but also from its possibile futures and unreal narrations, invoking it as a nexus of diversity and possibility.
credits
released March 25, 2022
Written, performed recorded and mixed by Dimitris Papadatos
Except:
A1: Vocals by Cruel Diagonals
additional vocals by Laith Demashqieh, Anna Papathanasiou and Maria Spivak
B1: Ney and additional music by Foteini Korre
additional vocals by Laith Demashqieh and Maria Spivak
ATHENS / NICOSIA / LOS ANGELES / AMMAN 2020 / 2021
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker
Artwork by Sara Scanderebech
Layout by Nicola Tirabasso
For this recording Wild Terrier Orchestra are:
Dimitris Papadatos: Electronics, percussion, organ, guitar, brass, bass
Cruel Diagonals: Voice
Foteini Korre: Ney
Laith Demashqieh : Vocals
Maria Spivak : Vocals
Anna Papathanasiou : Growls
Dimitris Papadatos / Jay Glass Dubs / Wild Terrier Orchestra is published by Touch / Fairwood Music
Thanks and love to Birsa, Daniele, Asmir, Elias, Daria and Gizmo
supported by 8 fans who also own “EVEN THE CHIMERA”
Suono assente è ben presente nelle mie avventure notturne. Mi aiuta ad evadere dalle preoccupazioni quotidiane ed entrare in un mood tanto nostalgico quanto leggero. Complimenti per la produzione di ottima qualità dall’inizio alla fine. Diego Suarez
supported by 7 fans who also own “EVEN THE CHIMERA”
honestly i love this album because, i love the sadness it portrays. i love the vocals, the acoustics, the electronic, experimental notes. eartheater really knew what to do with this album. vvinni
Composer, artist, and 12k label founder Taylor Deupree collaborates with Joseph Branciforte to reimagine his own seminal album. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 6, 2024
supported by 7 fans who also own “EVEN THE CHIMERA”
One of the most phenomenal projects to come out as of late, Kuro embodies beauty in all the formats it encompasses: the film, the soundtrack, even down to the packaging of the LP and the booklets. I can only hope that you give it a blind try and end up being robbed of words at its excellent contemplative force like I was. Hakeem Lapointe
