Diamanda Galás (album)

Diamanda Galas
Studio album by Diamanda Galás
Released	1984
Recorded	February 1984/October, 1981
Genre	Experimental, Avant-garde, Electronic Music
Length	32:41
Label	Metalanguage Records
Diamanda Galás chronology
The Litanies of Satan (1982) Diamanda Galas (1984) The Divine Punishment (1986)

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Diamanda Galas is the self-titled second full-length album by avant-garde performer Diamanda Galás, released by Metalanguage Records. The album is now out of print.

Musical Style

Panoptikon (named after Panopticon, a type of prison building designed to allow all areas of a prison to been seen from one vantage point), deals with imprisonment, isolation, torture and extreme alienation as well as homicidal mania and vengeance. It incorporates tape, electronic manipulations and distortion. Composed by Diamanda Galas, with additional lyrics from In the Belly of the Beast by criminal and author Jack Abbott.

Tragouthia Apo To Aima Exoun Fonos (Songs from the Blood of Those Murdered), recorded in 1981, consists solely of vocals in numerous vignettes. The recording is similar in texture to Wild Women With Steak-Knives, but when the latter was hysterical and loud, Tragouthia is slow, ghoulish and mournful. The singer was inspired by the tradition of Greek mourning rites, where women mourn the dead as well as seek revenge for the person responsible for the death. The words of Songs from the Blood of Those Murdered are sung in Greek and refer to the victims of the Greek junta regime that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Track listing

Side A:

1. "Panoptikon" - 15:22

Side B:

1. "Τραγούδια από το Αίμα Εχούv Φονός (Tragouthia Apo to Aima Exoun Fonos - Song from the Blood of Those Murdered)" - 17:19

Personnel

• Phil Brown - Mastering
• Diamanda Galás - Vocals
• Ed Herrmann - Recording (Side B)
• Larry Ochs - Executive producer
• Bob Shumaker - Engineering
• Richard Zvonar - Technician

References