The Athens Epidaurus Festival has unveiled a programme of events under the Subset banner, scheduled to take place at venues across the city this June. With immersive soundsystems installed in venues from the Ioannis Despotopoulos Amphitheatre to the Athens Conservatoire, the line-up will include Lyra Pramuk playing her forthcoming album Hymnal, as well as sets from Ryoji Ikeda, Christina Vantzou, Mouse On Mars, and many more. Arca and Greek PAN artist Evita Manji will open the Athens Epidaurus Festival and Subset via live performances at the open-air Lycabettus Theatre on 31 May – this will be Arca’s Greek debut.
Speaking about the festival, curator Stavros Gasparatos said “When I first proposed Subset, my goal was to create a space that could support and connect the vibrant Greek artistic community working in these fields. I wanted a platform that would commission new works, highlight the wealth of talent based in Athens, and open up meaningful exchanges with leading figures from the international experimental scene. Another key aspect of Subset is fostering collaboration across disciplines and backgrounds. The festival actively encourages hybrid projects that blur boundaries—between genres, between artists, and between audiences. By bringing these elements into dialogue, Subset aims to cultivate a space where adventurous ideas can flourish and new music can emerge.”
Collaborations at Subset will include a co-commission with Unsound, GMEA and CTM in the form of Гільдеґарда, in which Ukrainian composer Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko blend the influence of early music, modular synth, and traditional Ukrainian. Mouse On Mars will play alongside Dodo NKishi to showcase their Anarchic Artificial Intelligence project, while Berlin’s MONOM spatial sound operation will take over the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre for a collaboration by sound designer William Russel and writer Sofiana Theofanous. We’re told that “this newly commissioned work for children and adults invites the audience on a poetic journey through sonic light and shadow — a world where silence is not absence but a prelude to wonder…. the piece weaves storytelling and sound into a living, breathing landscape.”
Christina Vantzou will be performing The Reintegration of the Ear with Oliver Coates, Irene Kurka and John Also Bennett. The Athens Conservatoire will host Alexandra Katerinopoulou and Sofyann Ben Youssef’s AV performance LOSS: “Drawing inspiration from both Greek and Arabic traditions, the work dives headlong into the universal human experience of loss, exploring its personal, collective, cultural, and cosmic dimensions through an intricate fusion of sound, light, and sensory manipulation. By blending music, storytelling, and spoken word, the artists craft a transformative journey that guides participants through myth, sound, and darkness.”
You can view the full line-up and find out more about Subset via the festival website here.
