Biography
Pianist, composer, and vocalist Lena Platonos stands as an early innovator within Greece’s electronic music landscape, having produced more than a dozen albums plus numerous videos since the start of the 1980s. Several of the country’s initial pop tracks built chiefly around synthesizers originated with her, pairing spare electronic textures and dreamlike, poetic texts that addressed personal bonds, nocturnal visions, and imagined future societies. Having studied piano from an early age, she performed with the group DNA throughout the 1970s and supplied material for the popular children’s radio series Lilipoupoli during the latter half of that decade.
In 1981 she joined forces with Marianina Kriezi and Savina Yannatou on the forward-looking electronic release Sabotage, issued by Lyra. Subsequent projects with Yannatou yielded a collection of Kostas Karyotakis poems set to music and an album devoted to Manos Hadjidakis compositions. Her first solo outing arrived in 1984 as Sun Masks; Gallop followed in 1985, and Lepidoptera appeared in 1986, incorporating lyrics drawn from Giani Rontari nursery rhymes. An adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s Nightingale surfaced in 1989.
After early-1990s partnerships with Dionysis Savvopoulos and Dimitra Galani, Platonos largely withdrew from public view for the remainder of the decade. She resurfaced in 1997 alongside Yannatou, presenting traditional love songs in orchestral settings. That same year saw the appearance of The Mixer, an album on which various Greek electronic artists reworked her catalog across trip-hop and drum’n’bass styles. The 2000 release The Third Door, recorded with Maria Farantouri and based on poetry by Thodoros Poala, later received a stage adaptation at the Athens Concert Hall in March 2003. Platonos returned to electronic forms with 2008’s Imerologia, which generated two hit singles. The double-CD Live at the Palace arrived in 2010, and the 2011 collaboration 13 Songs paired her with John Bonito on settings of Constantine Cavafy verse.
Listeners drawn to vintage new wave and synth pop gradually unearthed her 1980s catalog, resulting in one track’s inclusion on the 2012 anthology Into the Light: A Journey into Greek Electronic Music, Classics & Rarities. Three years afterward, the American imprint Dark Entries reissued Gallop on vinyl; an EP of remixes by the Israeli techno duo Red Axes followed on the same label in 2016, and Sun Masks received a further reissue from Dark Entries before year’s end.
In 1981 she joined forces with Marianina Kriezi and Savina Yannatou on the forward-looking electronic release Sabotage, issued by Lyra. Subsequent projects with Yannatou yielded a collection of Kostas Karyotakis poems set to music and an album devoted to Manos Hadjidakis compositions. Her first solo outing arrived in 1984 as Sun Masks; Gallop followed in 1985, and Lepidoptera appeared in 1986, incorporating lyrics drawn from Giani Rontari nursery rhymes. An adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s Nightingale surfaced in 1989.
After early-1990s partnerships with Dionysis Savvopoulos and Dimitra Galani, Platonos largely withdrew from public view for the remainder of the decade. She resurfaced in 1997 alongside Yannatou, presenting traditional love songs in orchestral settings. That same year saw the appearance of The Mixer, an album on which various Greek electronic artists reworked her catalog across trip-hop and drum’n’bass styles. The 2000 release The Third Door, recorded with Maria Farantouri and based on poetry by Thodoros Poala, later received a stage adaptation at the Athens Concert Hall in March 2003. Platonos returned to electronic forms with 2008’s Imerologia, which generated two hit singles. The double-CD Live at the Palace arrived in 2010, and the 2011 collaboration 13 Songs paired her with John Bonito on settings of Constantine Cavafy verse.
Listeners drawn to vintage new wave and synth pop gradually unearthed her 1980s catalog, resulting in one track’s inclusion on the 2012 anthology Into the Light: A Journey into Greek Electronic Music, Classics & Rarities. Three years afterward, the American imprint Dark Entries reissued Gallop on vinyl; an EP of remixes by the Israeli techno duo Red Axes followed on the same label in 2016, and Sun Masks received a further reissue from Dark Entries before year’s end.
Albums
Singles
