LIght in the Dark 2014
Stream
A Musical Approach to Spyropoulos’ Paintings
Light in the Dark is a multidisciplinary project exploring the relationship between sound and visual abstraction through the work of painter Spyropoulos. Conceived as both a live museum experience and a recorded musical work, the project investigates how sound can inhabit and illuminate visual space.
The compositional language is structured upon the same synthetic principles that define the painter’s artistic approach. At its core lies abstraction: the preservation of archetypal elements — those that carry meaning and essence — while removing descriptive form. Spyropoulos’ paintings do not depict objects, but situations. They evoke states of being rather than representations.
Translating this philosophy into music required the gradual removal of recognisable patterns and conventional musical structures that operate on a conscious level. The aim was to move toward the subconscious — toward what is felt rather than identified.
Spyropoulos once said of his work: “I dropped the darkness to find the light.”
Within the sonic environment, this darkness becomes silence. Silence acts as both affirmation and negation. It reveals what is hidden, implicit, or forgotten. In the depth of silence lives the light of sound — the internal voice that can only be perceived when external noise fades. When brought into presence, this inner resonance becomes music.
The project was first presented in Athens in 2014 as an immersive museum event, where a multichannel sound installation was integrated into the exhibition space, surrounding the paintings and shaping the architectural environment. Visitors were invited to remain overnight in the museum, experiencing the works in a state suspended between wakefulness and dream. The sound installation unfolded continuously throughout the night, creating an atmosphere of contemplation where image, silence, and resonance coexisted.
Light in the Dark remains present as both spatial installation and album, carrying the encounter between abstraction and sound beyond the museum space.
Concept: Olga Danyilopoulou /Spyropoulos Institute
Choreography: Apostolia Papadamaki
Music: Tryfon Koutsourelis
