Zoe Efstathiou will perform music from her solo piano album Edge of Chaos, released in 2024 on iDEAL Recordings. At the heart of the album’s creation lies a fascination with revealing the piano’s overtones by harnessing the properties of complex systems.
These emerge as competing oscillations in the strings interact with room acoustics, microphone placement, the piano’s pedals, and its soundboard. Through extended forms, gradual movements, and nuanced tonal artefacts, the album aims to distort the perception of time and invite an introspective experience of multiple and expanded temporalities.
Zoe Efstathiou, a pianist and electroacoustic composer originally from Greece, is renowned for her pioneering work with extended piano techniques. The German newspaper der Freitag has described her as "a master of prepared piano" and called her performance at A L'Arme Festival "an improvisational masterpiece." Her interests lie in the intricate relationships between the overtones of acoustic instruments, electroacoustic textures, and the sonic potential of light installations.
Her music merges the immediate with the ever-evolving, exploring ideas of time, anticipation, and memory.