8 channel composition commissioned by Ekko Festival Bergen 2021. Also featured at Sibelius Academy Finland and finally presented at ZHdK in 8.4 multichannel format at the Kammermusiksaal 2.
Ekko Festival Bergen, Norway
October 2021
Curator: Lasse Marhaug
Sibelius Academy, Helsinki (as part of Spatial Audio Week 2021)
December 2021
Curator: Jan Schacher
ZHdK, Kammermusiksaal 2
January 2022
Master Project
31"
Synopsis:
An octophonic work exploring breath and the human voice, deconstructed and organised in multimodes, seeking out unventured terroir and sans language, to sound out the unheard, the suppressed, the invisible, the undeveloped, the inner and the other. Eight speakers become embodiments of the alt human. In the deep murky recesses of my clumsy subconscious sprung forth this idea of a better, more improved model human. In this last year, having spent so much time physically alone, and encountering human interaction through zoom or phone conversation only, I came to rely a lot on the voices of people as a gauge for intimacy, or humanity, if you will, a way to measure or tell from hearing vocal articulation, how well I was actually connecting. I started to observe more closely the infinite minute details of voices, and this led to the possibility of redesigning a new sonic experience of human "anima", our vital force. Alchemy dabbling. The human voice can be strong but also vulnerable, incredibly multi-faceted, and a carrier of so much nuance. Another reason why I am curious about this notion of intimacy, is if by working with these voices, there'd still be a way to feel and respond instinctively to the outcome. I also wanted to step back from being a composer, so in using Max to engineer a garden of vocal “happenings”, I relinquish some artistic control and what is heard is a result of autonomous and accidental unfolding events.
Voiced Sounds by Musicians:
Espen Reinertsen – voice, saxophone
Guro Skumsnes Moe – voice
Vivian Wang – voice
Frankenstein voice choir
Spatial audio design and assistance by Serafin Aebli
Max MSP guidance by Olav Lervik