"Shiny steel fingernails across the blackboard of your soul," a Jazz Noise
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¨Dyrnes and Efstathiou explore a wide variety of sound palettes, yet remain cohesive in their vision of the work as a whole. In some tracks, the performers blend with such similar timbres, it is difficult to tell exactly where the sounds are coming from. Even as a pianist who is no stranger to extended techniques and prepared piano, I was mystified by many of the sounds Efstathiou summoned from the piano — I was delighted and constantly surprised. She is without a doubt a stand-out player who has cultivated a truly personal and inimitable language of prepared piano techniques....
...In a discipline where value is widely (read: disproportionally) placed on fully-notated works, this album of self-proclaimed “textural improvisation interplay” is refreshing. Dyrnes and Efstathiou bewitch with their deliberate, intimate vision of extended technique improvisation. As one might pick up a handful of sand and contemplate the histories of each tiny particle, Kyaness reminds us to do the same with sound by asking: “What happens if we listen closer? And closer still? What do we hear when we go inside these sounds? What do we find there?” I sincerely hope for further offerings from this duo, and wholeheartedly recommend Kyaness for its sensory journey."
Tristan McKay @ I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Kyaness is one of the best electro acoustic recordings of the past couple of years," Fotis Nikolakopoulos, Free Jazz Blog
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Zoe Efstathiou & Oda Dyrnes “Kyaness” (Alkekung Records)
Those tightly wound steel coils and carved varnished signifiers of European modernity and its particular universal of exclusive civilisation are put to work for the radically relativising project on “Kyaness”, the debut collaboration record from pianist Zoe Efstathiou and cellist Oda Dyrnes. The pair have declared their interest in exploring the materiality of sound, and that fascination does indeed shine through from the very first moments of the album as the sounds dragged out of their instruments reveal the contingent conditions of the existence of these specialised objects. The distance between the grooves of a piano string and the tension of the bow are as much a part of what gives the opening track, “Fykia”, its identity as a composition as the fact that Efstathiou and Dyrnes composed it.
But this record is more than flat or reductive sonic materialism. “Kyaness”, from its inception as collaboration, is a record about relation. It is through the labours of Efstathiou and Dyrnes – their years of training in those classical traditions that are often taken to unambiguously show the superiority of European civilisation, and which were subsequently reappropriated by modernists to question this assertion following a half-century of carnage at home – that the materiality of sound is set to a different task. By coming in to contact and dialogue with each other – two people from opposite corners, and radically different fortunes, of this self-important landmass (Greece and Norway) – with their training and with the objects of their trade, and with the torment implied by virtuosity, Efstathiou and Dyrnes expose the mechanics of ruination that haunt the present even as they are obscured. “Kyaness” puts subjects and objects in contact with each other in such a way that calls into question the supposed utilitarian virtue of their separation by resonating, through the world before us, with the ruins to come." Macon Holt - Passive Aggressive
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyaness, the debut album of the duo consisting of Greek, based in Sweden pianist Zoe Efstathiou and Norwegian cellist Oda Dyrnes, features the musicians in an textural improvisation interplay, intertwining the cello and the prepared piano, in an expression that is tactile, poetic and attentive.
The duo challenges the possibilities of their instruments by the masterful usage of objects, extended techniques and microphones, towards the creation of a sound that possesses the aesthetics of electroacoustic music.
Driven by a fascination with the materiality and tactility of sounding objects and for the detailed articulations of micro-sounds, the duo invites the listener to experience the sound of proximity and of coexistence. Microphones placed very close to the sound sources, magnify the microscopic sonic fluctuations and draw the listener into the space of the resonating instruments.
Zoe Efstathiou is a pianist and composer from Greece living in Sweden. She has been characterised by the German newspaper der Freitag as 'a master of the prepared piano,' referring to her performance at A L'Arme Festival as 'an improvisational masterpiece.’ She composes music for piano, piano and electronics, electroacoustic music and installation works and has performed as an improviser in Scandinavia and Europe. Has released three albums under her label Alkekung Records, Starbrack (2018) with Egil Kalman, Alkekung (2019) with Egil Kalman, Kyaness (2021) with Oda Dyrnes. Her latest large scale composition Athroa that involves an improvisatory light installation has been presented at Nordic Music Days Festival, Onassis Cultural Center SGT Athens, Samtida Musik Stockholm.
vimeo.com/zoeefstathiou
soundcloud.com/zoe-efstathiou
Oda Dyrnes is a Copenhagen based cellist and composer, an active performer on the European improv scene, and initiative behind Crush String Collective. She comes from Sortland in northern Norway, a small city known for its rich cultural life, and special focus on contemporary music. In a childhood between breathtaking
nature as her playroom, and cello noise and sounds as her toys, Oda grew up to a creative musicianship. Combining classical music, extended techniques and free improvisation, she creates music that invites the listener into an otherworldly journey of cello sounds. Her sound has been compared to Jimi Hendrix, and she was awarded jazz debut of the year 2019 by Deutchlandfunk Kultur (Keno Harriehausen Quartet). In 2021 she will release her debut solo album, Caprices & Fantasias.
odadyrnes.com 
