Commissioned for Ekko Festival 2021
Østre performance space, Bergen
Curator: Lasse Marhaug
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.
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.