So it turns out that Holly Herndon is by no means the only person doing utterly obscene things with vocals. Antye Greie-Ripatti has been releasing vocal-based work for around a decade now, studying and working with the path-breaking composer Eliane Radigue. Source Voice, released on Richard Chartier’s LINE imprint, fills the entire frequency spectrum with terrifying squeals, industrial trills, and comically deep sub-bass. The array of sounds on display and the drama with which they are employed allow AGF to sidestep the dangers of academic boredom. This is just as well, because once she has you in her grasp, AGF provides an engaging and at times overwhelming chunk of vocal complexity.
(tinymixtapes.com)
Antye Greie-Fuchs’s Source Voice evolved out of a mutual respect between Line and the artist (now known as Antye Greie-Ripatti, after marrying Sasy Ripatti a.k.a. Vladislav Delay & Luomo, et. al). It follows label owner Richard Chartier’s own introduction to the Line Segments series, Foley Folly Folio by Pinkcourtesyphone. Like that album, this one skirts on the periphery of the more severe stylings sometimes associated with Line and instead has a more playful and perhaps subversive sound, veering into otherwise uncharted turf for the label. This album is based around the folk tradition of yoik, a wordless vocalizing generally associated with the Sami tribes of northern Scandinavia. In this case AGF uses her voice to blend in, reflect, imitate, and enhance her surrounding ambient sound of weather and room ambience. I’m a bit late to the game with this write-up, and admittedly it took time for Source Voice to take hold and make the right impression on my ears. But as with so much of AGF’s music, it’s not easy but quite rewarding when given the proper attention, preferably on headphones. “The Human Condition” starts things off with a harmonized, prolonged chorus of retuned vocals, the most overtly “vocal” sounding track here. It’s not my favorite personally, but it works fairly well to reset expectations and to introduce listeners to the unique timbre and sensibility of AGF. For the previously uninitiated, it provides a good bird’s eye view of what AGF is all about. But it’s beyond this first track that Source Voice sings to me, particularly on “Breathing in Lines,” the longest track here.
It’s subtle and consists almost entirely of AGF’s voice wheezing and sighing like the wind, layered in such a way that it’s diffuse yet quite effective. There’s a swirling chill to it, with indistinct, brittle crackles in the otherwise even layer of ice her vocalizing projects. It reminds me of the chilling telephone wire recordings of Alan Lamb, but more sedate and with the curveball of being entirely human voice (rather than strictly weather and structures). But it’s not all entirely dreamy; “Voice Count” is more heavily manipulated and electronic in sound, with AGF’s voice abstracted into sputtering rhythms that would be right at home on Raster-Noton.
It skitters and sputters around the stereo signal for a few minutes like a hailstorm before the piece de resistance, the subsequent pairing of “Kaamos” (Finnish for “Polar Night,” the only track where her voice is not manipulated at all) and “Digital Yoik.” both of these communicate the feeling of arctic chill and airy breeze in a way that’s fantastically effective. Particularly in the latter, AGF abstracts her voice midway into digital crackles of texture that feel simultaneously icy and gravelly. “Hum Pitch Play” is exactly what it sounds like, a playful closing to the album, bookending nicely with “The Human Condition” as a complement at the start of the album. It draws attention to both the more immediately human side of AGF’s voice as well as the overt manipulations she uses to repitch and manipulate it. I’ve heard most of AGF’s output to date, starting back with Laub and into her earliest abstract solo albums, and I find Source Voice to split the difference between her more academic and process-based music and something more instictively “musical.” That is to say that one not need dive into her methods or processes to appreciate the often visceral qualities of Source Voice, which also manages to deftly tap into the particular breed of minimalism that characterizes so much of Line’s output… it’s quite the match.
(earinfluxion.com)
At the risk of becoming a mouthpiece for its work – I recently wrote a glowing review of Richard Chartier’s Recurrence – here’s another incredible release from the Line label. Packaged in the house-style card wallet and adorned with digitally processed imagery, the cd contains six pieces of vocal-based constructions from AGF. AGF, or Antye Greie-Ripatti, is someone I’ve come across in the past with interest; but this is the first album I’ve actually heard: I haven’t been disappointed.
“Source Voice”, as you might guess, works primarily with vocals and vocal-processing; subjecting Greie-Ripatti’s interests in “yoik” (an ancient folk form of Sami singing/vocalization) to the full arsenal of layering, stretching, modulating, pitch-shifting and digital manipulation. The first piece, “The Human Condition”, sets out a statement in this regard; creating a broken-down, wheezing vocal ensemble with a darkly reverberating undercurrent – an effective prelude to the rest of the album. The liner notes tell how she started to sing along with her “surrounding wind and weather” and these sounds and ideas come to the fore on the second piece, “Breathing in Lines”. This, the longest track, is a breathy, windy drone; full of ice and quiet. It balances the “academic” aspects of AGF with a simple indulgence in the pure beauty of sound. This juggling of academia and a more overtly “musical” sensibility, is something found throughout “Source Voice”. “Voice Count” takes cues from electronica and dub methodology – obliterating sounds on a molecular level, altering them and then reassembling them in colorful, firework-like displays. It pushes past the level of manipulation and processing normally associated with those musics, but still offers the strains of their more sensual pleasures. In line with its title, “Digital Yoik”, the penultimate work creates a shifting landscape of breath and hum; before reducing down to a shimmering, watery presence. The last piece, “Hum Pitch Play”, operates on a similar level to the first track; with recognizable, melodic vocal elements circling and morphing around each other.
This is another great release from Line. An album that explores technology, processing and listening, without ever disappearing into hard-boiled academia. Its a clever, playful, colorful set of recordings, which never outstays its welcome. Although it is rather dense in sound terms (theres only a few “minimal” passages), its never particularly “noisy” – though there is some serious low-end to be found. The processing work is uniformly quite spectacular: you really wouldn’t guess that some of the sounds on “Source Voice” solely used voice as source. Though in direct counterpoint to this, and showing her depth of skill, the haunting drone of “Kaamos” is created purely from Greie-Ripatti’s untreated voice. (5/5)
(musiquemachine.com)
On this new CD which has landed on Richard Chartier’s LINE imprint is the entire audio is constructed using her voice and the the sounds in the room around her. From the off it’s an interesting listen. Eerie breathy vocals drone away in their own low pitched multi-layered fashion. It’s both bizarre and beautiful at the same time. The audio on the CD is based around Yoik which is a mostly wordless form of singing/vocalization by the Sami tribe of northern Scandinavia and considered one of the longest living music traditions in Europe.
Some of the tracks don’t sound like they’re constructed with vocals at all as they’re strange glitchy electronics. I’ve no idea how the voice can be manipulated into sounding like half of the sounds on here but it’s fascinating. It’s a good headphones listen as well as there’s many layers and textures to the music. For me this is one of the more interesting LINE releases with plenty going on and knowing how the music has been made it makes you think whilst you’re enjoying the sounds. Excellent!
(normanrecords.com)
There are some parallels with the intrepid laptop-voice exercises of Holly Herndon, but Source Voiceis less an attempt at futurism and more an effort to use the tools of the present to commune with the past, the ancient, and possibly the eternal. One of AGF’s most pertinent works to date, both in concept and execution, it demands immersion and concentration but generously rewards it.
(boomkat.com)
With Source Voice she seems to pick up again the thread of the long introspective experimentation: she modulates vocal emissions as her very personal, political and controllable instrument, beating out essential and rarefied electronics in very minimal style that features iterated drones and barely audible audio flinches. The German artist, now living in Hailuoto, Finland, mostly uses an ancient technique deriving from a popular practice, the yoik, a non-verbal form of singing typical of the Scandinavian tribe of Sami, a musical tradition considered one of the longest-living in Europe. The range of variations and frequencies are hardly suitable to easy decoding. An academic approach to them is not recommended. There is a movement away from the glitch expressions typical of her former experimentations; here on minimal caesura you can find more “organic” nuances that are at the same time corporal and immaterial. In many passages the drones make an evolution, they seem to come out from whispered yearns and it is not easy to work out what is the result of digital manipulation and what is not. The record seems to employ something like the “estrangement technique” used by the Russian formalists in the twenties, which makes unusual or obscure things seem normal, or the opposite – normal things seeming unintelligible because they are shown to us from “another” point of view. However, all the elements come together to create an effect of great charm: the processed voices, the foggy environments, the irreconcilable but resolute passages, the always intriguing and highly sensitive textures.
(neural.it)
Death throes and suffocated laments, which then sound like burgeoning so that you could think about tragedy and pain related to non-communication as one of the most eminent generative sparking of art, seem to permeate “The Human Condition”, the very first track of this new release by whimsical East-German musician, sound-artist and poetess Antye Greie-Ripatti, popularly known as AGF and living in Hailuoto (Finland) together with her husband Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay), who focused on voice, regarded as the human instrument par excellence, distinctive characteristic and even political device of each person, for this occasion, as you can easily grasp from the title “Source Voice”. The icy Finnish environment she daily experiences resonates all over the record, whereas AGF arranges her voice into the surrounding context till it seems to coalesce with whiffs and severe weather conditions in “Breathing In Lines” and transmuting into a singing ice crystal while shimmering in the middle of a blizzard and gradually turning into a more human breath after a reprieve in the gorgeous “Digital Yoik”, which reveals one of the sources for inspiration for this recording, the ancient, mostly wordless form of singing/vocalization by the Sami tribe of Northern Scandinavia. The somewhat spooky vocal deformations on “Hum Pitch Play”, the barbed electrical saturation points on “Voice Count” and the entrancing moans of “Kaamos”, the only track where voice has not been digitally processed, are likewise mindblowing. The exclusive digital bonus available only through the shop of Chartier’s label, “Feed Back”, a collaboration with label owner, sounds like the defrosting of a singing nymph of the woods with organic sounds grabbed by means of hydrophones placed on the waterline of some frozen pond.
(chaindlk.com)
AGF moves further away from words on Source Voice, which is a brave move for an artist with such a facility to wrap text and sound around each other and uncover something semantically and sonically new. The pieces here are loosely sctrutured, densely layered and rigorously processed constructions all proceeding from the sound of her voice. Don’t expect the pyrotechnics and sonic extremes of Maja Ratkje: AGF favours engaged introspection, as if she’s tuning in to the hum of the natural environment and trying to reflect it back. She lives in the wilds of Finland, and indeed channels a form of Sami vocal technique. The processing is also more low-key than usual, certainly less obviously eventful than 2011’s Beatnadel, but perfectly realized.
(The Wire, UK)
La prima impressione che si ha del nono lavoro in studio di Agf, a posteriori, è sostanzialmente quella giusta: un disco in cui non succede assolutamente nulla – se a dinamica vengono associati schemi e sviluppi usuali della popular music. Sviscerati i più diversi livelli semiotici e sociologici, la tedesca traghetta infatti, a questo turno, in una dimensione del tutto nuova la sua già intrepida ricerca artistica di estetica e contenuto, isolando con gesso fosforescente il corpo del suo oggetto di studio prediletto – il linguaggio. Affrancato dalla funzionalità e dall’utilità terminale attribuitegli dall’abitudine, questo medium sterilizzato necessita, nell’idea di Agf, di un ripensamento radicale, di essere ricondotto in qualche modo a uno stadio bambino e innocente. Alla sua fonte, precisamente. Quello che rimane allora non può che essere lo strumento umano ripiegato su se stesso, sciolto da ogni convenzione: i testi sono scomparsi, le articolazioni linguistiche asciugate, la sensualità vocale dell’artista deformata, le strutture pop-elettroniche senza più alcun significato. La signora Greie-Ripatti squarcia la tela quindi con un disco breve e asciutto, stilisticamente coerente con l’approdo alla label di sir Chartier, e che soprattutto fa ben poco per accomodare l’ascoltatore.
L’esordio di un’opera che si preannuncia difficile, ostica ma non inaccessibile, “The Human Condition”, lancia anche gli unici paralleli postulabili a primo acchito: gli esperimenti di Maja Ratkje e il björkiano“Medúlla”, non fosse però oscurata (o meglio, ignorata) in maniera quasi programmatica ogni facile concessione romantica. L’attacco della voce è in ogni composizione nudo e inespressivo, spesso ridotto al solo respiro, salvo però deturparsi in mille direzioni diverse con il silenzioso contributo del digitale (ogni singolo suono infatti nasce unicamente dalla voce di Agf), senza fare sfoggio di alcuno stile vocale, ma con l’umile obiettivo di ridare dignità alle potenzialità inaudite dello strumento nella sua forma più cruda, timbrica e astratta. Ultimo ma non ultimo, l’intento di indurre l’ascoltatore alla reazione, allo stupore, ma anche al puro e semplice fastidio. “Breathing In Lines” e “Voice Count” si pongono così ai due estremi, la prima – nettamente il capolavoro della raccolta – si lacera a tal punto da attorcigliare un incantevole drone prossimo al rumore bianco, mentre la seconda si compone di stranianti grumi vocali al limite della sintetizzazione.
Passando per l’unica meditazione non trattata del disco (“Kaamos”), si scorge finalmente il cuore dell’opera, “Digital Yoik”, il pezzo che ha dato il la all’intero esperimento. Ispirata dall’ancestrale tradizione folk scandinava dello yoik, infatti, Agf ha trascorso un intero anno in giro per fiordi, ghiacci e montagne a cimentarsi con l’antica tecnica (stando ai libri di testo, ancora praticata da alcuni focolai tribali), che consiste nel riprodurre vocalmente, in uno stato di semi-trance, i suoni della natura e delle condizioni atmosferiche circostanti. Una scelta del tutto simbolica quindi quella di cominciare questa temeraria riforma, dalla preistoria folk che riallaccia queste ambizioni futuribili a una prosa irriducibilmente umana e terrena. L’intervento del laptop infine, più sottile che altrove, è anche qui determinante per allentare il potenziale immaginifico e completare questo inquietante rituale di purificazione digitale con un vago senso di distacco e assenza. Superata questa soglia è possibile allora ricominciare a edificare da zero e azzardare una prima e unica melodia vocale: “Hum Pitch Play”, una modulazione semplice ed essenziale che ha fatto scuola di questa intima riflessione e che si prepara a partire verso chissà quali porti ancora da delinearsi.
L’introspezione infusa nell’approfondimento della voce come strumento giunge al suo ultimo stadio, il compimento finale e definitivo. Fin dal suo esordio “Head Slash Bauch” – più di dieci anni fa – la tedesca ha sempre dato l’impressione di avere in mente un percorso preciso, ascoltando la sua discografia si è come guidati in un sentiero che è anche la vita di una persona e di un’artista. Se negli anni i concedimenti al pop sono sempre stati di gran spessore – senza mai dare l’impressione di cavalcare le mode ma sempre coerente e sincera – la vera natura di Agf è questa, rannicchiata davanti ai suoi strumenti, profondamente immersa nella sua arte e in un raccoglimento quasi religioso. L’emblema e l’approdo verso questa sublimazione è la traccia finale in coppia con il boss Richard Chartier: un lento, silenzioso, snocciolarsi di brumi glitch e timide onde sensoriali, dolce, freddo e profondamente nordico, come la tradizione dei pionieri della frozen-ambient insegnano.
L’indagine decostruttivista della Greie è arrivata quindi al suo limite estremo.
Ci piace pensarla isolata fra i suoi fiordi, mentre disegna e immagina qualcosa di completamente diverso da “Source Voice”, scardinando le certezze dei propri ascoltatori o confermandole, mettendo sempre a disposizione di chi la ama qualcosa di “diverso”.
Difficile dire così dove andrà a parare questa sostanza così brumosa e indefinibile, sicuro è per ora il suo carattere di opera colta ma mai accademica o autoreferenziale, nonché esperienza coinvolgente al di qua delle cuffie: costretti a un raccoglimento nuovo con il proprio strumento, Agf ci dà un’altra possibilità di ripartire per una conoscenza altra di sé e del mondo. Non sfruttarla significa perdere un’occasione, in musica, difficilmente replicabile.
(ondarock.it)
If her name is new to you, you may have some interesting research to do: she has been working together with artists like Vladislav Delay, Ellen Alien, Gudrun Gutand Eliane Radigue (amongst others)… as expected, none of these tracks sound like the traditional joiks. “Source Voice“ definitely strays from the joik-norm, too!
(ambientblog.net)
Source Voice je album, který oslavuje hlas ve všemožnejch mutacích a jelikož je AGF protřelá nerdka a počítačům rozumí jak IT profesionál s medailí za zásluhy, tak v mnoha momentech ani zkušený ucho nepozná, co je ještě hlas a co už je soumrak digitálních věků. Úvodní The Human Condition nebo desetiminutovka Digital Yoik je postavená na speciální hlasový technice yoik, což je celý hodně úlet, protože jde o něco na způsob hrdelního zpěvu pocházejícícho z prazvláštního skutečně existujícícho národa Sami kdesi v Norsku. Nejznámější obyvatelkou a, ehm, vývoznim artiklem je třeba šedesátiletá mimoženka Mari Boine a Renée Zelweger, takže omg, lol, wtf a záplava otazníků a vykřičníků v závěsu. Každopádně, AGF mnohokrát prokázala, že jí není nic svatý, a taky, že záběr jejích fascinací nebývá úplně tradiční, takže všechno v pořádku. Důležitou novinkou je fakt, že tohle album představuje AGF jako perfekcionistku poprvé výrazněji operující s minimalismem. Typickejch výbojů a zašmodrchanejch smyček se na Source Voice nedovoláte, namísto toho vás čeká meditativní drone ambient hrubýho zrna. Do určitý míry navazuje na hlasový exhibice Björk na Medúlle a v mnoha případech připomíná i ultimátní elektronický hrátky svěženky Holly Herndon, o který se tady nedávno zmínil Lukáš Pokorný v bravurní recenzi. Tenhle model však rozvíjí do striktních rovin moderní vážný hudby. AGF byla vážná vždycky a experimentálním se v jejím rejstříku jeví spíš pokusy o klasičtější, ve smyslu čitelnější až popovější, postupy, jako předvedla třeba v kolaboracích s filmovym skladatelem Craigem Armstrongem anebo tehdy, když začala fušovat do čistobeatový hiphopový proklamace rozjančený Quio. Vyjma tohohle se drží ale spíš akademický, strohý roviny produkce a jako u jedný z mála mě to zrovna u ní baví. A když už jsem před chvílí zmínil pár položek z kolaboračního seznamu, nebude od věci připomenout i pár pro mě docela zásadních spoluprací s interpretama bližšíma jejímu hudebnímu jazyku, ať už jde o Gudrun Gut, ukrajinskou ezo experimentátorku Zavoloku, Ellen Allien, Sue C, Vladislava Delaye, neboli Sasu Ripattiho, neboli, jak je svět malej, pana manžela, otce jejích dětí a věrnýho parťáka v dobrodružnejch tůrách po exotickejch zvukovejch krajinách a nejnověji o Richarda Chartiera – slovutnýho renesančního umělce sypajícího výbuchy kreativity jak na poli hudebním (label Line, pár položek v katalogu Raster Noton), tak na poli grafickýho designu. AGF je neúnavná pokušitelka chuťovejch pohárků lačnících po progresu a je potěšující, že se na tom nic nezměnilo navzdory rozdílnejm kulisám a upgradeovanýmu arsenálu výrazovejch prostředků. Impozantní záležitost!
(indiemusic.cz)
Cuando las palabras se pierden solo queda el sonido. La alemana Antye Greie–Ripatti lleva más de diez años publicando ‘experimentos conectando la voz, la deconstrucción del lenguaje, la percepción y el procesamiento del sonido’. La primera vez que oí de ella fue con el dúo Laub –como parte del sello Kitty–Yo– y, posteriormente, ya con su producción bajo el nombre de AGF. Entre medio, proyectos como The Lappetites, The Dolls, discos junto a Craig Armstrong, Zavoloka, Ellen Alien, Gudrun Gut o Vladislav Delay, quien es además su marido –de ahí el cambio de apellido de Fuchs a Ripatti–.
La voz siempre ha estado presente en la obra de Antye. El uso de las cuerdas vocales han sido un elemento que ha recorrido toda su producción, a veces pronunciando palabras, a veces tan solo emitiendo sonidos, que también es una forma de comunicación. Por otro lado, esta la manipulación del ruido electrónico, entramados sintéticos de delicadas fibras que forman redes, sobre las que se sobreponen las palabras y los poemas, las frases en medio del tejido digital. Dentro de ellos cabe destacar “Westernization Completed” (Orthlorng Musork, 2003) y “Words Are Missing” (AGF Produktion, 2008). Luego de dos años, la artista alemana regresa editando el segundo trabajo de Line [Segments], la serie, subsello, parte del label de Richard Chartier. “La voz es el instrumento humano. Casi todos tienen una voz… Una voz es personal, política y controlable. Algunas voces son escuchadas más que otras. En expandir el sentido de la voz, escuchándolo y deconstruyéndolo, nosotros aprendemos sobre nuestro cuerpo, nuestra especie. Crecemos y adquirimos conciencia a través de este proceso”. El reciente trabajo de AGF, demás esta decirlo, se focaliza en la voz humana, claro que procesada digitalmente, con una excepción. Seis pistas donde los sonidos que salen de las entrañas de un ser humano, ella misma, se entremezclan con las corrientes frías de un ambient glaciar. Al saber de su existencia de inmediato me sentí intrigado por sus resultados pero, sin embargo, por alguna extraña razón, me aleje de él –probablemente su portada–. Una vez superado eso, finalmente me lancé a él, sin miedo. Y aquí estoy, aún sumergido en él. “Source Voice” esta inspirado por algo llamado yoik, una ancestral costumbre folclórica. Yoik es una forma de cantar y vocalizar, mayormente sin palabras, de la tribu Sami, en el norte de Escandinavia, considerada una de las más antiguas tradiciones musicales de Europa. Antye comenzó a imitar y vocalizar junto con el viento y el clima a su alrededor. “The Human Condition” y AGF multiplica su cuerpo. Su boca se abre y parece como si fuesen diez más. La voz suena entre un bosque helado, con el crujir de la madera húmeda, y prontamente asoman las olas congeladas, mareas profundas, como el aliento enorme de algún dios nórdico. Solo son cinco minutos, pero son suficientes para representar al resto del álbum: música experimental y que, sin embargo, no se hace difícil de escuchar. “Breathing In Lines” utiliza los mismos recursos, pero llega a puntos diferentes. Prácticamente solo se oye un murmullo prolongado hasta los vastos campos de hielo, y la voz esta tratada de una manera que se confunde con el ruido que rodea su corporalidad. La voz se torna entonces crujido microscópico, pequeños insectos, libélulas que merodean al interior de la garganta y que esparcen el viento, dejando irreconocible las letras que no existen. Todo se vuelve electrónica polar, minúscula y espaciosa. “Voice Count” nuevamente cubre los rastros de acústica original en sonido artificial, en este caso no muy lejos del techno clínico propio del último período de raster–noton –Mark Fell/ SND, Alva Noto, Cyclo, Kangding Ray, Frank Bretschneider–. La cuarta pieza, “Kaamos”, es la única en la cual la voz permanece incorrupta, y en donde el misterio ancestral y la herencia mística aparecen. Ubicada en medio del disco, es una especie de remanso reflexivo proveniente de las tierras más frías, donde la civilización aún no penetra del todo. Respirar, exhalar, acciones básicas, vitales hechas arte. “Digital Yoik” se desarrolla de manera más amplia, primero envolviendo con brumas vaporosas y luego con silencios, más tarde regresando a las envolturas. Finalmente “Hum Pitch Play” hace de epílogo a través un ejercicio de click’n’voice, ruido, viento, mar y electrónica intrincada. Sin embargo, eso no es todo. Existe un track adicional solo disponible por medio de la tienda de LINE. “Feed Back”, pieza digital compartida entre AGF y Richard Chartier, veinte minutos de sonidos viajando de un punto a otro, distante, recorriendo trayectos que van del minimalismo silente y quirúrgico del norteamericano a las múltiples capas sonoras de la alemana, pasando lentamente por zonas submarinas, por murmullos multiplicados y por el ruido lumínico.
La fuente es la voz, y cuando las palabras se extravían, solo quedan los sonidos que esta emite para transmitir las sensaciones, para comunicarse de manera primaria y expresar la humanidad, de la misma forma que lo hacen las aves, animales, insectos. “Source Voice”, uniendo corporalidad, ambiente y sonido es una obra que rebasa vitalidad por cada costado a través de su fría respiración y su aliento que hiela.
(hawai.wordpress.com)
The locus of the voice on Source Voice is everywhere circling around this grain, suppressing its content and thus “giving voice” to the tragedy that is suffering barred from linguistic expression. The deep, digital imprints with which AGF (Antye Greie, East-German composer and wife of Vladislav Delay’s Sasu Ripatti) crafts her vocal textures and arrangements sets into the discussion of the grain of the voice a new contradiction. What voice it lets out bears in fact a digital grain. The body of the voices here are digital bodies, virtual bodies, and hence bodies without materiality, essentially non-bodies. And yet, for all this, their grain is all the more palpable. The fuzz, the glitch, the deep, sand-papery textures that pervade these voices are contradictory expressions of a material body that has, via the mediation of the digital, been removed from its materiality. It has transcended it only to produce the effects of its now-lost immanence.
In this regard the tragedy of Source Voice is the tragedy – and the antagonistic capacity of this tragedy’s future reconciliation – of voice in the age of its digital reproduction (more pertinently, production, for productions’ sake). We are all bodies expressing the contentless materiality of expressing our materiality through digital means. If this is our soundtrack, its resolute content says this: that there is sublimity in the mimesis of this corporeal situation – the real virtualization of the corporeal as such. We are bodies without bodies (not organs!) who nevertheless bear within our voices the granular remnants of a materiality which has denied itself. It is this sublime tragedy which AGF expertly expresses in the voice (and its other) filtered through the indifferent monster if digital texture.
(mountvictory.blogspot.fi)
Bisher hatte AGF das Luxus- aber eben doch konkrete Problem, ihre avancierten Texte (nicht umsonst beschreibt sie sich selbst als “poemproducer”) und ihre nicht minder vertrackten soundscapes so zu kombinieren, dass der Konsument im Sturzbach der 2exp16 Informationseinheiten/sec. nicht ertrank. Das umgeht sie bei ihrer neuen Arbeit durch konsequente Vermeidung herkömmlicher Sprachäußerungen: Source Voice basiert zwar auf (heftig bearbeiteten) vokalen Lauten, jene werden aber hin- und hergedreht, gezerrt und gedehnt, gestaucht und gepitcht, bis sie ihre Herkunft von sich geschüttelt haben und zu reinem Klang werden. Wer will, kann das als elektronische Variante von Carlfriedrich Claus’ Sprechexerzitien oder “Digital Yoik” verstehen – man kann sich aber auch einfach in diesen elektronischen StimmSee fallen lassen und darin ganz ruhig dem Horizont entgegenschwimmen.
(westzeit.de)
Pri ‘Source Voice’ kljub naslovu torej ne gre več toliko za glas kot raziskovanje semantičnih struktur, politike identitet in spola, niti za kreiranje elektronske glasbe izključno na zvočnih in ritmičnih prvinah glasu, prenesenih v domeno elektronskih tekstur, glitchev, granulacij in frekvenc. Ta del predstavljajo tri mojstrsko krojene skladbe, v katerih zrno glasu postane predmet manipulacij, transformacij, multiplikacij in procesiranj. Skozi digitalno sintezo zvoka glasu skladb ‘Voice Count’, ‘Hum Pitch Play’ in deloma ‘The Human Condition’ se ti procesi fantastično utelešajo skozi izjemno natančen, a hkrati tokrat tudi bolj propusten, mehkejši in subtilnejši skladateljski tok. V njih je glas podvržen procesu preoblikovanja in ohranja predvsem svojo zvočno-kompozicijsko funkcijo.
A glavni nastavek plošče se odpre že v otvoritveni skladbi ‘The Human Condition’, ki nastavi ton celotni plošči skozi imenitno zvočno-glasbeno utelešenje vprašanja glasu v sodobni digitalni dobi, ki ga AGF tokrat razpira skozi odmev preteklosti. Glas postane vir, osrednja točka med primarnim in kulturno ter tehnološko posredovanim, ki na plošči ‘Source Voice’ zveni čudovito in deloma tragično obenem. V ‘The Human Condition’ je glas dvigajoč in padajoč, raztelešen in plastovito razpršen ter vedno tik nad ali pod izrazito artikuliranostjo. Nadalje se glas razpusti in ponikne. Skladba ‘Breathing In Lines’ poleg diha kot nosilca glasu uteleša prepih vetra kot sile, ki poganja stvari v gibanje, se zaganja in pregiba v prostoru in ob stiku z objekti in predmeti ustvarja prostor šuma. Ta prostor je prostor prekritja, ki ga Antye Greie imenitno utelesi s postopoma rastočimi glasovi v ozadju. Ti se v digitalni domeni podaljšajo v trajajoči kontinuiran, le rahlo moduliran ton, ki postopoma pronica izpod plasti ambientalnega šuma in digitalnega pokljanja. Ta ton v skladbo vnese skrivnosten čustveni naboj in izrazito eterično občutje. AGF v zadnjih letih izrazito zanima element vetra, ki ga večkrat povezuje s skrivnostnimi, smrtonosno zapeljivimi glasovi mitoloških bitij siren. ‘Breathing In Lines’ nam lahko pričara tovrsten prostor, hkrati pa na plošči razpre prostor za edino skladbo, kjer glas ni digitalno obdelan in moduliran, temveč zgolj plasten v kompozicijskem procesu. Gre za subtilno večglasje in pritajen šepet skladbe ‘Kaamos’, ki korenini v njenem delu s finskim zborom Kaiku Sound Choir, s katerim uteleša koncept integracije dediščine joika, vzpostavljanja prostora kot ambienta in občutja, kot nekakšne evokacije oziroma vtiranja določenega prostora, osebe, živali, naravnega pojava v neki drug prostor. To nas pripelje do osrednje skladbe pričujoče cedejke, do skladbe ‘Digital Yoik’. Ob njenem poslušanju ne smemo zapasti v skrajno zmoto, da gre zgolj za prenos neke starodavne tradicije v neki drugi zvočni oz. glasbeni milje, v tem primeru v polje elektronske glasbe. Poznamo namreč cel kup skandinavskih izvajalcev in skupin, ki joik vtirajo v polje sodobne produkcije svetovnih godb ali v križance med folk tradicijo in metalom. ‘Digital Yoik’ v primeru Antye Greie pa velja poslušati na več načinov, seveda tudi na način relacije med starodavnim in sodobnim, arhaizmom in modernostjo, med konkretno lokalno tradicijo in prostorom ter razpršenostjo prostora in identitet v polju digitalnega oziroma virtualnega. Politika identitet v polju digitalnega, predvsem na ravni glasu in spola, leži v samem osrčju ustvarjanja AGF, vendar pa se na plošči ‘Source Voice’, še posebej pa v skladbi ‘Digital Yoik’, umika nekemu drugemu premisleku, ki ga vzpostavlja glasba. Namreč ravno premisleku digitalnega prostora samega in glasu v njem skozi starodavno vokalno tradicijo. Ta artikulacija, ki ostaja odprta in ki jo marsikdo na ravni zvoka tolmači kot tragično, je utelešena v šestih izjemnih skladbah, prek katerih je AGF pogumno zakorakala v novo smer v svojem členjenju glasov in ob tem ustvarila verjetno svoj najboljši album doslej in glasbo, skozi katero čudovito resonira njegova osnovna ideja.
(radiostudent.si)
L’opera di decostruzione linguistica messa in atto da Antye Greie-Ripatti si arricchisce di un nuovo capitolo con “Source Voice”, album in cui lo spessore materico, corporeo della voce –da sempre al centro delle pratiche dell’artista di base ad Hailuoto- si stempera in una serie di tracce dal taglio meditativo, a tratti mistico. Siamo lontani dagli esperimenti di frammentazione fonico-semantica di “Language is the Most” o di “Gedichterbe”: tutto è più dimesso, meno spigoloso ed immerso in un mood raccolto.
(Blow Up, Italy)
