Ben Vida: Vocal Trio (Blume)
Speaking again of Chicago, Ben Vida’s Vocal Trio, courtesy of the Italian Blume imprint, documents the artist’s Spring 2022 work, when in Bremen collaborating with choreographer Faye Driscoll.
Two dancers involved in the production—Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart—were also singers, offering an opportunity to turn Vida’s experiments with typographical scores into what Blume describes as a new, “non-linguistic social framework.”
Vida drew out a single page of text—the entire score for Vocal Trio—accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestions and loose parameters, encouraging the three vocalists (Ben, AG and LR) to sing as <<sloooowllly as possible>>, though by Vida’s vocal-based standard, not his slowest on record.
Providing a very smart dialogue, the A and B-sides complement one another formally, at least. No words exchanged. Just Voice. Utterance. Extension. Resolution. Decay.
This back-and-forth speaks to the range of Ben’s work over the last two decades. We’ve been fans since the chamber ensemble Town and Country (with Josh Abrams, Jim Dorling and Liz Payne), and possibly even before. Someone needs to release his solo guitar recordings.
Vida’s vocal turn, which began a decade or so back, provides some of his most challenging and interesting work, though we do long for the return of his vigorous modular voice.
An amazing addition to Ben’s discography.
Speaking again of Chicago, Ben Vida’s Vocal Trio, courtesy of the Italian Blume imprint, documents the artist’s Spring 2022 work, when in Bremen collaborating with choreographer Faye Driscoll.
Two dancers involved in the production—Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart—were also singers, offering an opportunity to turn Vida’s experiments with typographical scores into what Blume describes as a new, “non-linguistic social framework.”
Vida drew out a single page of text—the entire score for Vocal Trio—accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestions and loose parameters, encouraging the three vocalists (Ben, AG and LR) to sing as <<sloooowllly as possible>>, though by Vida’s vocal-based standard, not his slowest on record.
Providing a very smart dialogue, the A and B-sides complement one another formally, at least. No words exchanged. Just Voice. Utterance. Extension. Resolution. Decay.
This back-and-forth speaks to the range of Ben’s work over the last two decades. We’ve been fans since the chamber ensemble Town and Country (with Josh Abrams, Jim Dorling and Liz Payne), and possibly even before. Someone needs to release his solo guitar recordings.
Vida’s vocal turn, which began a decade or so back, provides some of his most challenging and interesting work, though we do long for the return of his vigorous modular voice.
An amazing addition to Ben’s discography.
Speaking again of Chicago, Ben Vida’s Vocal Trio, courtesy of the Italian Blume imprint, documents the artist’s Spring 2022 work, when in Bremen collaborating with choreographer Faye Driscoll.
Two dancers involved in the production—Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart—were also singers, offering an opportunity to turn Vida’s experiments with typographical scores into what Blume describes as a new, “non-linguistic social framework.”
Vida drew out a single page of text—the entire score for Vocal Trio—accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestions and loose parameters, encouraging the three vocalists (Ben, AG and LR) to sing as <<sloooowllly as possible>>, though by Vida’s vocal-based standard, not his slowest on record.
Providing a very smart dialogue, the A and B-sides complement one another formally, at least. No words exchanged. Just Voice. Utterance. Extension. Resolution. Decay.
This back-and-forth speaks to the range of Ben’s work over the last two decades. We’ve been fans since the chamber ensemble Town and Country (with Josh Abrams, Jim Dorling and Liz Payne), and possibly even before. Someone needs to release his solo guitar recordings.
Vida’s vocal turn, which began a decade or so back, provides some of his most challenging and interesting work, though we do long for the return of his vigorous modular voice.
An amazing addition to Ben’s discography.