Eleni Karaindrou Essentials

An eerie flute melody, a mournful harp, a sprightly dance theme on bouzouki—the music of Eleni Karaindrou always evokes the sounds and atmosphere of her native Greece. Karaindrou was born in 1941 in a rural mountainous region and grew up in Athens. She studied ethnomusicology in Paris and, on returning to Greece, founded the Laboratory for Traditional Instruments at the ORA Cultural Centre. She has been hugely prolific as a film composer since the ‘70s. Her most important collaborations were with director Theo Angelopoulos, including the scores for Eternity And a Day (1998) and Trilogy I / The Weeping Meadow (2004)—atmospheric and meditative music in which traditional Greek instruments are heard against warm strings. The live album Concert in Athens (2013) features more expansive readings of her music with assistance from longstanding collaborators oboist Vangelis Christopoulos, violist Kim Kashkashian and saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Outside of Greece, Karaindrou has also worked with screen directors Chris Marker (L'Héritage de la chouette) and Margarethe von Trotta (L’Africana). Two of her pieces appear in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road.