Lena Platonos

Pianist, composer, and vocalist Lena Platonos is a pioneer of the Greek electronic music scene, with over a dozen albums and numerous music videos dating back to the early ’80s. She was responsible for some of the first Greek pop recordings to primarily utilize synthesizers, and her otherworldly songs combined minimalist electronic soundscapes with poetic, surrealist lyrics about relationships, dreams, and the societies of the future.

A piano player since childhood, Platonos played in band called DNA during the ’70s and composed music for popular Greek children’s radio program Lilipoupoli during the second half of the decade. In 1981, she collaborated with Marianina Kriezi and Savina Yannatou for an innovative electronic album titled Sabotage, released by the Greek label Lyra. This was followed by an album of Kostas Karyotakis poems set to music and an LP of Manos Hadjidakis compositions, both also in collaboration with Yannatou. Platonos made her solo debut in 1984 with Sun Masks, followed by Gallop (1985) and Lepidoptera (1986), which included lyrics based on nursery rhymes by Giani Rontari. An adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s Nightingale appeared in 1989.