Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Thessaloniki, Greece 1981) is currently based in London. She has previously lived in Athens for a couple of years and before that in Barcelona for several years, where she acquired a Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics investigating the notion of (in)definiteness. During her stay in Barcelona she gradually got involved in experimental non-academic music. She was influenced and attracted by free and electro-acoustic improvisation, its multiple historical situations and its concurrences with modern composition strategies and jazz.
She is active in the field of experimental, electro-acoustic and improvised music since 2006. She plays the zither, an old folk instrument, since 2006, and remaps its territory. She treats it as the interior of a piano and a resonance box, extending its sonic possibilities by preparing its strings making use of various objects detached from their typical usage.
Her first recording was the piece Paraula clau in Ferran Fages’ guitar cd Cançons per a un lent retard, which is based on the detuning(s) of the guitar. She has a stable formation as ap’strophe with Ferran Fages, under which they have released two albums, objects sence objectes (2009) in the Catalan label Etude Records and corgroc (2010) in the English label Another Timbre. A more impromptu approach gave rise to Paisatges with Felipe Araya-Muñozon Kukuruku Recordings (2009). Collaboration with Berlin-based Chris Heenan (contrabass clarinet) gave rise to Der schlaue Fuchs, which was released in the Greek label More Mars (2011). Her first solo album stroke by stroke was released in 2011 by the Greek label Organized Music from Thessaloniki. ‘Outwash’, a trio with Tisha Mukarji (piano) and Angharad Davies (violin), has just been released in June 2012 on another timbre.
She has performed solo, in long-term collaborations (with Ferran Fages as ap'strophe) and in occasional formations with several musicians in Barcelona, Athens, Paris, Berlin, Ljubljana, London, Oxford, Brighton and Cambridge.
She has played with Jennifer Allum, Ruth Barberán, Anthea Caddy, Lucio Capece, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Neil Davidson, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Jane Dickson, Axel Dörner, Ferran Fages, Patrick Farmer, Anastasis Grivas, Franz Hautzinger, Robin Hayward, Chris Heenan, Sarah Hughes, Gabriel Humberstone, Daniel Jones, Ute Kanngieser, Grundik Kasyansky, Paul Khimasia Morgan, Kostis Kilymis, Tisha Mukarji, Seijiro Murayama, Ivan Palacký, Eddie Prevost, Henrik Olsson, Christine Sehnaoui, Tom Soloveitzik, Tasos Stamou, Danae Stefanou, Olivier Toulemonde, Birgit Ulher, Nikos Veliotis and Daichi Yoshikawa.
She has participated in international festivals such as TOT 1.0 in Athens, Pied Nu in Le Havre and Personal and Collective in Ljubljana.
She has collaborated with the dancer and choreographer Constanza Brncic in the dance piece Entra_ser mirada, and with the dancer Dafni Stefanou as the duo circumstances.
Dimitra is currently involved in the music scene in London, playing with musicians based there, while continuing long-distance collaborations. At the moment she is exploring multiple ways to reroute her music.
// background photo by Corinna Triantafyllidis
