Thursday, October 31, 2024
Book Preview: Athos: Echoes from the Holy Mountain
By Emma Rycroft
A new multimedia project explores the traditions and music of the monastic residents of Mount Athos in Greece, where little has changed over centuries
Monks of Athos singing together (Kostas Balafas)
Exploratory, multi-disciplinary publishing house FLEE are set to release a new project, Athos: Echoes from the Holy Mountain. The product of several years of research, the book studies life and music in the monastic peninsula of Mount Athos in northeastern Greece. Home to 20 monasteries and around 2,000 monks, Athos’ monastic roots go back to the ninth century, possibly further.
It is a place seemingly lost in time, with the editors of this book remarking that ‘on this peninsula, the presence of man has been controlled and regulated for over ten centuries and the contrast with the highly touristic bordering town of Ouranoupoli is striking; no advertisements, no larger constructions and more significantly, no women.’ Indeed, women are banned from the island due to the abaton rule, which dictates that ‘all women and female animals (except for cats that hunt rodents) are forbidden to enter the Holy Mountain for it is the Virgin Mary’s Garden, where she is the only woman permitted.’ It is these anachronisms, as well as the haunting music of Athos – where ‘holy liturgies… have been sung for centuries by countless brotherhoods’ – and their tension with modern-day life and sound that the book aims to unpack. As the editors put it, ‘The Holy Mountain often finds itself in the middle of heated debates about colliding worlds… While this project doesn’t seek to answer those questions directly, it attempts to articulate a scientific and artistic conversation… for the understanding of a sometimes misknown place and community.’
The FLEE project is not limited to the book (which is written in English, Greek and French and features essays, photographs and artistic commissions from a variety of contributors) but encompasses a double LP compilation of field recordings taken on Athos in the 1960s and the 21st century, as well as covers of this material by artists including Jimi Tenor, Inre Kretsen Grupp and a number of Greece-based electronic musicians. As well as these releases, FLEE are launching exhibitions and conferences aimed at sharing the research undertaken on the Holy Mountain.
Athos: Echoes from the Holy Mountain and its companion compilation will be published on November 27. Both are available for pre-order
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today
