Lumineux - Nicholas Tzortzis

Written between July and September 2017 for the Ensemble du Bout du Monde, Nicolas Tzortzis’s Lumineux grew out of a moment of profound personal upheaval. While the composer’s official note highlights the influence of Georges Aperghis’s Signaux and the work’s exploration of multiphonics, the deeper story reveals a rawer emotional undercurrent. Composed in the aftermath of a painful breakup, Lumineux transforms private loss into an urgent, almost physical sound-world.

The title itself suggests radiance, but the light here is never uncomplicated. Instead, it fractures and refracts through multiphonics, extended tessituras, and razor-sharp rhythmic interplay. Textures surge forward with relentless intensity, then shatter into sudden silences. The music enacts a cycle of rising tension, escalation, and ultimate rupture — a sonic mirror of grief as it builds beneath the surface until breaking point.

This visceral quality is perhaps what makes the work so compelling. The saxophone quartet becomes both voice and vessel: sighing, screaming, shimmering with unresolved energy. Yet through the pain, Lumineux opens a path toward reflection. By casting intimate suffering into the realm of sound, Tzortzis offers a cathartic transformation. The piece is dedicated to the members of the Ensemble du Bout du Monde, who gave it its first voice in Athens, and to Georges Aperghis, whose inspiration provided a framework within which Tzortzis could channel something intensely personal into something that now resonates universally.

(Program note by Don-Paul Kahl, based on texts by Nicholas Tzortzis)

EBM PERFORMANCE RECORD:

2025:
2 June 2025 - Paris, France - Conservatoire de Gennevilliers
19 October 2025 - Boston, MA, USA - New England Conservatory - LINK

2023:
28 April 2023 - Hannover, Germany - Sprengel Museum - Klangbrücken Festival

2018:
17 January 2018 - Zurich, Switzerland - Zurich University of the Arts
13 February 2018 - Athens, Greece - ONASSIS Cultural Center
20 March 2018 - Paris, France - Fondation des Etats-Unis
22 March 2018 - Paris, France - Selmer Paris Showroom
24 March 2018 - Palma de Mallorca, Sparin - X Mallorca Saxophone Festival
15 April 2018 - Zurich, Switzerland - AKI Borderless
22 September 2018 - Tallinn, Estonia - Soundplasma Festival

2017:
20 November 2017 - Athens, Greece - Radiobubble
21 November 2017 - Athens, Greece - six.dogs
22 November 2017 - Athens, Greece -Instiut Français de Grèce
23 November 2017 - Athens, Greece - KET TV
24 November 2017 - Athens, Greece - Baumstrasse
25 November 2017 - Athens, Greece - Baumstrasse