Numb, number

Artistic comments

These comments are meant to inform briefly about my techniques, the musical parameters I use, and roles in the musical interplay. These reflections are a part of my work as artistic researcher in the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme, situated at Department of Music, NTNU. The full reflection on my research can be found here , and includes the same music and similar comments, but with a more detailed reflection. There are links to special issues in the full research text from my artistic comments. (Please use your web-browser to get back to this post.)

General info/explanation of terms:

In my artistic research, I have suggested some terms to describe what musical parameters and roles I work with, using live electronics:

Play with zones: playing with grades of naturalness and meaning in voice sound and processed voice sound. (Central zone and peripheral zone representing the two poles of extremes) See Chapter 3, especially 3.1.2

“Text”: Sounds like words, but with no semantic meaning (see 3.3)

I am categorising roughly four different types of processing (see 3.4.1):

Broadening: adding something to the voice

Narrowing: filtering the frequencies of the voice

Placing: putting the voice in different rooms/spaces and distances

Reconstructing: changing the voice sound more substantially

– Singer, speaker, soundsinger and soundmaker: a rough categorising of four different roles for the vocalist in the interplay. The two latter roles are- compared to the acoustic voice- made easier available within a much broader range, through the use of electronics:

– Soundmaker: Main focus on sound and/or its function, going away from the voice as a bearer of meaning through melody or speech, often in peripheral zone.

– Soundsinger: Between singer/speaker and soundmaker. This role includes the function of melody as commenting or accompanying the musical scenery, not being a traditional lead voice; lyrics as sound more than meaning – “language” without bearing semantics, processed sound creating a distance to the natural voice. It is somewhere in between the central and peripheral zone.

(See Chapter 4, especially 4. 2.)

Example: Numb,number: BOL/WESTERHUS/SNAH, from Numb,number, GIGAFON 2012

 

Here I am using sampled text-phrases to create one layer, and sampled text-phrases in the G/F patch to create another, while singing (with Snah!) (The comments in the Soundcloud-player refer to terms explained above.  Different instruments and techniques are described and discussed in Chapter 2 and 3.)

Links:

G/F patch: 2.2.5

Roland: 2.2.4

A library of sounds in 3.5

BOL/WESTERHUS/SNAH: The Western Wind

Artistic comments

These comments are meant to inform briefly about my techniques, the musical parameters I use, and roles in the musical interplay. These reflections are a part of my work as artistic researcher in the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme, situated at Department of Music, NTNU. The full reflection on my research can be found here , and includes the same music and similar comments, but with a more detailed reflection. There are links to special issues in the full research text from my artistic comments. (Please use your web-browser to get back to this post.)

General info/explanation of terms:

In my artistic research, I have suggested some terms to describe what musical parameters and roles I work with, using live electronics:

Play with zones: playing with grades of naturalness and meaning in voice sound and processed voice sound. (Central zone and peripheral zone representing the two poles of extremes) See Chapter 3, especially 3.1.2

“Text”: Sounds like words, but with no semantic meaning (see 3.3)

I am categorising roughly four different types of processing (see 3.4.1):

Broadening: adding something to the voice

Narrowing: filtering the frequencies of the voice

Placing: putting the voice in different rooms/spaces and distances

Reconstructing: changing the voice sound more substantially

– Singer, speaker, soundsinger and soundmaker: a rough categorising of four different roles for the vocalist in the interplay. The two latter roles are- compared to the acoustic voice- made easier available within a much broader range, through the use of electronics:

– Soundmaker: Main focus on sound and/or its function, going away from the voice as a bearer of meaning through melody or speech, often in peripheral zone.

– Soundsinger: Between singer/speaker and soundmaker. This role includes the function of melody as commenting or accompanying the musical scenery, not being a traditional lead voice; lyrics as sound more than meaning – “language” without bearing semantics, processed sound creating a distance to the natural voice. It is somewhere in between the central and peripheral zone.

(See Chapter 4, especially 4. 2.)

Example:

The Western Wind (From Numb,number, GIGAFON 2012)

I start with accompanying looped samples on Roland, varied with filtering, (soundmaker.) I am singer for most of this tune, but in the improvised section I use a pitch shifter (Lexicon) with “text”, blending with the band, (soundsinger] peaking gradually out at he end. (The comments in the Soundcloud-player refer to terms explained above.  Different instruments and techniques are described and discussed in Chapter 2 and 3.)  Links:

Roland: 2.2.4

Bol/Westerhus/Snah 4.3.2

 

 

Excerpt BOL: Nature is not Beautiful

Artistic comments

These comments are meant to inform briefly about my techniques, the musical parameters I use, and roles in the musical interplay. These reflections are a part of my work as artistic researcher in the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme, situated at Department of Music, NTNU. The full reflection on my research can be found here , and includes the same music and similar comments, but with a more detailed reflection. There are links to special issues in the full research text from my artistic comments. (Please use your web-browser to get back to this post.)

General info/explanation of terms:

In my artistic research, I have suggested some terms to describe what musical parameters and roles I work with, using live electronics:

Play with zones: playing with grades of naturalness and meaning in voice sound and processed voice sound. (Central zone and peripheral zone representing the two poles of extremes) See Chapter 3, especially 3.1.2

“Text”: Sounds like words, but with no semantic meaning (see 3.3)

I am categorising roughly four different types of processing (see 3.4.1):

Broadening: adding something to the voice

Narrowing: filtering the frequencies of the voice

Placing: putting the voice in different rooms/spaces and distances

Reconstructing: changing the voice sound more substantially

– Singer, speaker, soundsinger and soundmaker: a rough categorising of four different roles for the vocalist in the interplay. The two latter roles are- compared to the acoustic voice- made easier available within a much broader range, through the use of electronics:

– Soundmaker: Main focus on sound and/or its function, going away from the voice as a bearer of meaning through melody or speech, often in peripheral zone.

– Soundsinger: Between singer/speaker and soundmaker. This role includes the function of melody as commenting or accompanying the musical scenery, not being a traditional lead voice; lyrics as sound more than meaning – “language” without bearing semantics, processed sound creating a distance to the natural voice. It is somewhere in between the central and peripheral zone.

(See Chapter 4, especially 4. 2.)

Example:

Excerpt BOL: Nature is not beautiful,live at Teaterhuset Avant Garden 2011

This is an improvised sequence from a project with lyrics by Siri Gjære; here we are doing an “electro-transparency”- sequence. I am using Ring modulator effect and G/F patch, first as soundsinger with “text”, then mostly soundmaker through the rest of sequence (but with a trace of text through the reverb sometimes.) (The comments in the Soundcloud-player refer to terms explained above. Different instruments and techniques are described and discussed in Chapter 2 and 3.)

Links:
G/F patch: 2.2.6
Roland: 2.2.4
Nature is not beautiful in 7.6.2 
BOL: 4.3.1

BOL: Skylab Audiovision excerpt

Artistic comments

These comments are meant to inform briefly about my techniques, the musical parameters I use, and roles in the musical interplay. These reflections are a part of my work as artistic researcher in the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme, situated at Department of Music, NTNU. The full reflection on my research can be found here , and includes the same music and similar comments, but with a more detailed reflection. There are links to special issues in the full research text from my artistic comments. (Please use your web-browser to get back to this post.)

General info/explanation of terms:

In my artistic research, I have suggested some terms to describe what musical parameters and roles I work with, using live electronics:

Play with zones: playing with grades of naturalness and meaning in voice sound and processed voice sound. (Central zone and peripheral zone representing the two poles of extremes) See Chapter 3, especially 3.1.2

“Text”: Sounds like words, but with no semantic meaning (see 3.3)

I am categorising roughly four different types of processing (see 3.4.1):

Broadening: adding something to the voice

Narrowing: filtering the frequencies of the voice

Placing: putting the voice in different rooms/spaces and distances

Reconstructing: changing the voice sound more substantially

– Singer, speaker, soundsinger and soundmaker: a rough categorising of four different roles for the vocalist in the interplay. The two latter roles are- compared to the acoustic voice- made easier available within a much broader range, through the use of electronics:

– Soundmaker: Main focus on sound and/or its function, going away from the voice as a bearer of meaning through melody or speech, often in peripheral zone.

– Soundsinger: Between singer/speaker and soundmaker. This role includes the function of melody as commenting or accompanying the musical scenery, not being a traditional lead voice; lyrics as sound more than meaning – “language” without bearing semantics, processed sound creating a distance to the natural voice. It is somewhere in between the central and peripheral zone.

(See Chapter 4, especially 4. 2.)

Example:

 

Excerpt from “Skylab Audiovision”, live at Verkstedhallen, 2009

This is from a performance where we worked with video and installation, improvised music where musical and visual structures and ideas was connected to a collection of chosen poems by Norwegian poet Rolf Jacobsen, translated by Roger Greenwald. (A demo video can be seen here)

Here I am using sampled loops from earlier speaker and singer – roles, as soundsinger/soundmaker– material, fading in and out and mixing levels. Especially towards the end of this sequence, I experience that the loops have an instrumental function even if the vocal sound is close to natural. (The comments in the Soundcloud-player refer to terms explained above.  Different instruments and techniques are described and discussed in Chapter 2 and 3.)

Links:

Roland: 2.2.4

Looping and sampling:  3.5 discussing some challenges: 3.6

Relase Åse/Strønen “Voxpheria” !

The debut cd of Åse /Strønen duo; “Voxpeheria” is released on Gigafon !

"Voxpeheria"

Photo: Andreas Ulvo (Thanks to Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology)

 

PRESS:

Vocals and drums in new landscapes»
5 out of 6

«Supple vocals and rhytmic electronics combines into a higher unity-“

Vocalist Tone Åse and drummer Thomas Strønen, who both belong to the jazz scene in Trondheim, has separately been very active in different settings. Now they´ve joined forces in a duo that displays their talents in a fascinating way.
Tone Åse has always been a vocalist that´s more than willing to experiment. Much like Eldbjørg Raknes and other colleagues within the same generation,
she´s explored the possibilities of the human voice, often utilizing electronics and sampling. This album is no exception in that regard. Distorted, vowel-like sounds goes hand in hand with powerful presentations of lyrics by Rolf Jacobsen and E.E.Cummings. This time, because she´s brought along Thomas Strønen as an equal partner, the result comes off as more accesible than before.
Strønen provides a strong rhytmic element, using both drums and electronics. This makes parts of this album tight and almost funky, in a very appealing way. Some sections actually gives me assosiations to artists like Tom Waits and Talking Heads, even though Åse and Strønen resides in a totally different genre.
Voxpheria does offer some more stationary soundscapes, but they never last for so long that it gets monotone. This album perfectly exemplifies that it´s possible to make new soundscapes using traditional instruments like vocals and drums.

– Trygve Lundemo, Adressa

«Space Jazz»

It could have been a new galaxy, but «Voxpheria» is introduced as the soundscape that´s created when the electro-acoustic improvisers Tone Åse and Thomas Strønen meet. Åse, who once co-founded Kvitretten, who is the leader in Trondheim Voices and has her own band Bol, has been an important voice in the field of vocal improvisation, somewhat musically related to Sidsel Endresen in the way she creates her own language. Strønen´s drum repertoire has been both acoustic and electronic for a long while, especially in the duo Humcrush, and here two performers meet in a conglomerat of sonic display, some of the tracks containing daring use of the lyrics of E.E.Cummings, often used by vocalists, and Norway´s own Rolf Jacobsen, in a setting he himself didn´t live to see, but most certainly would have approved of. They venture high and wide, before the duo performs a smooth landing on «Dive for Dreams».
– Roald Helgheim, Dagsavisen

FINAL CONCERTS Artistic Research Program

Sunday 8/1 2012 I am performing 2 final concerts as part of my research project

“The voice and the machine and the voice in the machine”-now you see me, now you don’t-

– and by this ending  my three year research project as a fellow at NTNU,  in the Norwegian Artistic Research Program.

The concerts will be performed at Dokkhuset, Trondheim:

13.00: Tone Åse solo: “Eugenie- short -stories of sound” + Tone Åse/Michael Duch duo

20.00: Tone Åse/Thomas Strønen duo: “Voxpheria” (also cd- release !)

+ BOL : Tone Åse/Ståle Storløkken/Tor Haugerud

It’s for FREE !!!

 

 

 

 

2 x bass and electrosoprano !

Concert Åse/Duch duo & Mattis Kleppen 12/10@Verkstedhallen, Svartlamoen, Trondheim , 20.00

Åse/Duch plays  their improvised acoustic/electric music of the moment

Mattis Kleppen plays his beautiful  original versions of  various traditional musics for  solo bass guitar

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