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Filippos Sakagian (b. 1992, Greece-Armenia) is a composer and transmedia artist whose diverse work includes audio and light installations, immersive performances, and a rich catalog of instrumental and mixed pieces for ensembles with electronics. His creations are marked by visceral intensity, interweaving sound, light, space, and the body to craft experiences imbued with existential weight, inviting audiences to engage with their perception in transformative ways.Sakagian holds a master’s degree in instrumental composition and new technologies from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) and is an alumnus of the IRCAM Cursus program (2021–22). He designs bespoke instruments and develops personal tools in Max/MSP, seamlessly integrating lighting design and spatial sound into his works. Additionally, he operates live under the stage name necrotrance, channeling his creative vision into transcending sonic rituals.His works have been performed at prestigious international festivals and institutions, including FTMA (FR, 2022), GRAME (FR, 2024), Greek National Opera (GR, 2021), Intonal (SE, 2021), IRCAM (FR, 2022), Megaron Athens Concert Hall (GR, 2021), ME_MMIX (ES, 2018), MIXTUR (ES, 2020), Musée de l'Orangerie (FR, 2019), NFM (PL, 2025), OPUS (FR, 2024), RE-ND-ER-ED (GB-SCT, 2021), Stegi Onassis (GR, 2025), TIEMF (IR, 2022), TONARIUM (PL, 2025).Sakagian’s collaborations with diverse ensembles and performers have been pivotal in shaping his craft, fostering dialogues that deepen his engagement with interdisciplinary practices and artistic research, as well as explorations into live performance systems.His work has garnered recognition and support from organizations such as the Meyer Foundation, SACEM, the Legs Jabès scholarship, and the Tarrazi Fund, among others. He has received several awards, including the SACEM Composition Prize (2017) and the Hertzbreakerz Electroacoustic Composition Prize (2020).

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• 💊 instrumental

• 💊 electronic

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• 💊 instrumental

• 💊 electronic

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Learn More About
Underground Chamber Music Album

• ✶ METAPH
• ✶ INVERSED CATHEDRAL
• ✶ SIGNAL-MORPH
• ✶ NEGATIVE SOIL
• ✶ FIREWALKERS

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filippos.sakagian@gmail.com

filippos.sakagian@gmail.com

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KTVC [hypnos] [2025]

collective hypnosis experience for spatial audio, lights & 8 performers

KTVC [hypnos] forces participants to dive into a confined, subconscious liminal space, a chamber suspended from reality, where sound, light, and motion oscillate. ‘hypnos’ unfolds as an intense hypnotic ritual designed to access the subconscious cave, taking place directly among the audience, leaving them faced with choices, or the option to relinquish them entirely.It seeks to dissolve the boundaries between reality and the hidden places of the mind, invading the audience’s psychological architecture and pushing the experiential format further. Fracturing the present, 'hypnos' creates a transient encounter where the observer and the observed collapse into one, singular hallucination.Part of the KTVC project by composer and transmedia artist Filippos Sakagian, under the stage name ‘necrotrance’, ‘hypnos’ is presented in collaboration with choreographer and performer Dafin Antoniadou. This collective hypnosis experience dialogues with Sakagian’s forthcoming album "KTVC mass for the dead" (2025) and its homonym live multichannel audio-visual performance "KTVC liturgy".Duration: 75'Filippos Sakagian: concept, direction, composition, sound spatialisation, light, performance (necrotrance)
Dafin Antoniadou: choreography, performance (scar)
Amélie Nilles: artistic advisor, performers’ coordinator, performance (light)
Mar Sala Romagosa, Maksymilian Termin, Julia Paradysz, Justyna Piechota, Jacek Lis: performance (light)

DIONYSIAN SKIN [2022]

transmedia live performance for live electronics, spatial audio, lights & 6 performers

This work is a collaboration with the Greek choreographer and dancer, Dafin Antoniadou.DIONYSIAN SKIN unfolds like a death liturgy, a dark and intense theatrical rite that breaks away from the traditional stage setting. Rather than being confined to a specific performance area, the ceremony takes place directly among the audience, inviting them to move and become fully immersed in the act. The use of intense sensory stimulation as well as live sound spatialization, enhances the audience's experience and makes them feel as though they are an integral part of the mortuary rite.The opening procession marks the beginning of a transformative journey, as the "nameless one" emerges as the unconscious presence and central figure, leading the audience down a dark and intense choreography, much like a psychopomp. Once the human offerings are carefully gathered, a pile of bodies is formed, reminiscent of a spider weaving its web and collecting its prey. The performance can be seen as a macabre sacrifice, evocative of the act of cannibalism in a death ceremony or a strange Bacchic orgy.For this project, I've developed custom software for live sound spatialization, lighting design, and sound synthesis, all within the Max/MSP environment. The reason for this lies in my perception of electronics as a living entity. I engage in a practice I refer to as "inverted possession," akin to a form of shamanism, where I immerse myself in what I've created, infusing it with a distinct dynamism. This approach enables me to make real-time decisions, responding to the ongoing performance, while preserving an organic and adaptable temporality.Duration: 30'Filippos Sakagian: concept, direction, live electronics, sound spatialization, live lights
Dafin Antoniadou: choreography, performance
Frederik Bous, Céline Bouscarle, Amélie Nilles, Safia Zimouche: performance

┑┑┑┑[2020]

installation for spatial audio & lights

┑┑┑┑ is a 43-minute hybrid performance, between sound and light installation and live, for multichannel sound and lights, divided into three parts. This piece is marking my first deliberate foray into intensity, where I aim to immerse the listener in various states, taking into account the mechanisms of psychoacoustics and psychology. For more infos about how this piece was made, refer to the 1st part of my master thesis on Intensity: INTENSITY, tool of transcendence and dissolution of the selfEight lights and eight speakers enveloping the audience enhance the experience by "orchestrating" the narrative to heighten its impact. Nuanced spatial design, dispersing sounds in octophony and dynamically shaping the environment to simulate the expansion and contraction of masses as the material gains momentum, is adding to the "immersiveness" of the act. For that I've developed a custom software within the Max/MSP environment for live sound spatialization, lighting design, and sound synthesis, tailored specifically for this project.The first part, IN DIGITAL ECSTASY, seeks to disorient the listener to better control their experience. When in an unstable environment, one enters a state of urgent listening, seeking a guiding thread, to hold onto. This part is aimed at breaking down the barrier between the listener and the work from the start. For 16 minutes, stroboscopic lights intensify the disorientation process by preventing the listener from keeping their eyes open and inviting them to delve into internal listening. Spatialization creates a bustling environment contributing to the listener's disorientation.The second part, OF A SPACE FULL OF MATTER, provides a meditative space for reflection, with lights extinguished to encourage introspection. It begins with a sensory purification, gradually elevating after the dense experience of the first part.WRAPPED IN SYNTHETIC WATER, the third part, introduces a liquid sonic environment, visually enhanced by lights, lasting approximately 10 minutes for contemplation.Duration: 43'

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METAPH [2025]

for baryton, electronics & lights

A Onassis Stegi commission
Written for Tenor Marios ManiatopoulosThe voice is undoubtedly an anatomical instrument that moves me deeply and carries a strong symbolic weight, while speech and language are two particularly fascinating, yet simultaneously dangerous, mechanisms.Language begins as a fantasy of communication, but gradually transforms into a symbiotic infection. We witness daily how words and meanings are corroded, distorted, emptied, shattered, devoured, and reborn. Speech contracts and mutates incessantly, shaped by interests. For me, the character of the piece, Seraph, is not exactly a voice, but rather a symptom of detachment from language and a shift toward metaphor.Duration: 5'16Filippos Sakagian: baryton

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IИVERSED CATHEDRAL [2023]

for electronics, 6 musicians & lights

Structured as a ritual, IИVERSED CATHEDRAL unfolds in three acts. The listener is immersed in an imaginary inverted cathedral, an inner space named for the negative space I found myself in after hearing problems in December 2022, causing hearing loss and low-frequency tinnitus. This piece reflects a sort of digestion of my Greek and Armenian cultural origins and my musical past, having studied Byzantine music, microtonality, electronic music, and contemporary music.The main challenge was to coexist invisible electronic presences with visible musicians without becoming anecdotal. Light and smoke transform the stage into an inverted cathedral, where on-scene musicians meet the phantomatic electronics, a fusion of reality and imagination, de-contextualizing and re-contextualizing the space with my vision.Materially, an organic, animalistic spirit arises; split voices, mournful cries, resonant calls, and organ-like tones, and harmonic echoes, invoking primal archetypes that shape the piece’s visceral texture.Duration: 20'Julien Leroy: direction
Youjin Jung: bass clarinet
Laurent Bordarier: bass trombone
Joakim Ciesla: saxophones
Rémi Briffault: accordeon
Marius Mosser: violin
Min-Yu Tseng: double-bass

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SIGNAL-MORPH [2019]

for 2 celli

SIGNAL-MORPH is a piece for two cellos exploring the parasitation and transformation of sonic signal through extended instrumental techniques and gestures. Woven from layers of ritualistic interplay and sonic spellcasting, the work investigates how one signal invades, morphs, and redefines another, blurring the line between control and improvisation. Composed and performed by the artist, the piece becomes a living experiment in resonance, distortion, and transmission.Duration: 3'36Filippos Sakagian: cello

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NEGATIVE SOIL [2020]

for 9 musicians & electronics

NEGATIVE SOIL composed between 2019 and 2020 after my grandfather's passing, is a funeral march and lament in honor of his memory.In crafting this piece, I adopted a more austere approach to compositional writing, yet found a sense of immediacy and urgency in its simplicity: the impact, the gritty resonance, and the vocality of the synth's lament. These three elemental gestures serve as the backbone of the composition, directly inspired by the acoustic images of my grandfather's burial in Greece:With bated breath, in a somber atmosphere, I bid my final farewell to my grandfather. The thud of the shovel against the still damp earth, my hand striking the wood in a dazed final salute, the gritty sound of soil being thrown onto the coffin to cover it, these are the last acoustic images and signs of his presence.Electronics in the piece amplify its intent, delicately orchestrating the instrumental parts' morphological and gestural aspects.Duration: 11'11Guillaume Bourgogne: direction
Performed by the musicians of the Conservatoire (CNSMDP)

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FIREWALKERS [2020]

for 2 accordeons, daf & electronics

FIREWALKERS reimagines the rural sounds of Anastenaria, blending oral tradition with contemporary writing and techno elements to create a "traditional phantasm". Using instruments not native to these traditions, such as two accordions, one microtonal, and the daf, I craft an artificial, almost electronic timbre.In 2019, during my mandatory 9-month military service in the Greek army, I returned to my homeland after a decade in Paris. Exploring northeastern Greek villages during my leave, I had the chance to witness an ancient ritual of "anastenaria" or "firewalking," rooted in Dionysian cult rituals. Participants spend three days and nights mentally and physically preparing through music and dance before walking on burning coals.That year, I composed this miniature for the Paris Conservatory's 30th anniversary, capturing the ecstatic dances of northern Greece where repetitive motifs lead to trance-like states.Duration: 4'Ambre Vuillermoz: accordeon
Fanny Vicens: xamp microtonal accordeon
Aurélien Gignoux: daf