CD – Unsounds

In this “cycle of transhuman songs for computerized human voices” the author eschews both the classic models of what is a cyber-song (Laurie Anderson or Holly Herndon, for example) and the temptation to easily please the audience, covering famous hits for example in a robotic or futuristic style (Atom ™ and Alexei Shulgin are two excellent representatives of this approach). In the thirteen tracks that make up the project, Barbara Ellison instead explores the complex musicality of vocal avatars and TTS (Text-to-speech), creating hypnotic plots, referring rather to the tradition of sound poetry and avant jazz, resorting to repetitions, to alliterations, intervening on words, morphemes and phonemes, with phrases and vocal particles to which new sound meanings are given, transforming the multiple languages ​​used into rhythmic patterns. This is a treatment “beyond the human”, one that is ghostly and a little obsessive but also playful and eclectic. This will be further implemented in an already planned theatrical show where Barbara Ellison will interact on stage with her collaborator Nathalie Smoor. The voices sampled on the computer become real instruments to explore phenomena through the extensive use of the various iterations. “CyberSongs is a series of songs that focus on the use and interpretation of speech patterns for the generation of rhythm and meaning,” says Ellison, specifying how repetition is what causes an “antithetical rupture of meaning”. In the compositions presented, the entire spectrum of linguistic and syntactic units is exploited: they are microfractions of syllables, entire sentences, intertwined in speech patterns that at different scales affect our attention, forcing us to continually adapt our listening. Embracing new information and decoding what the sounds generate within a precise context is one possible listening strategy. Another option could be to let oneself go with the metamorphic flow of elements at play, freeing oneself like gibberish of every conceptual or abstract energy-category.

 

Barbara Ellison – CyberSongs