Auf “BODY” kontrastieren rohe, akustische und ungeschönte Stimmklänge mit Fragmentierungen und Manipulationen durch elektronische Prozesse. Vokale Ausdrucksweisen treffen auf die Rhythmen körperlicher Bewegung, während wiederkehrende Motive den Zyklus des Albums leitmotivisch strukturieren. IKI selbst sagen dazu: “We wanted to remind ourselves that life extends beyond our living bodies. This aligns with our artistic ethos as a group. As five different vocalists, we work toward becoming a unified organism – one body – while investigating the interplay between the organic and mechanical, the spontaneous and the analytical, the improvised and the composed”.Das Album markiert für das Ensemble einen besonders persönlichen Zugang und verdichtet über mehr als ein Jahrzehnt gewachsene Erfahrungen an der Schnittstelle von improvisierter Vokalmusik, Live-Elektronik und performativer Forschung. Das Album erscheint als LP und zum Download, der Track “Walk” ist bereits als digitale Single erhältlich.

@ IKI 

Der ungewöhnliche Einsatz von Papier ist nicht nur klangliche Spielerei, sondern verleiht der Musik eine besondere Struktur. Das Konzept entstand während eines Konzerts in einem dänischen Papiermuseum, das unter der Auflage gefördert wurde, dass die Musiker Papier in ihre Klangerzeugung einbeziehen. Dies erwies sich als derart vielversprechen, dass das Trio beschloss, die Idee weiterzuverfolgen und ins Studio zu bringen. So finden sich auf Hippo Road nicht nur die warmen Klangfarben der Stimme und der Instrumente, sondern auch faszinierende akustische Details von Papierstempelmaschinen und Papierbearbeitung. Greg Cohen schreibt in den Liner Notes: “The Paper Trio was created when Thomas was asked to play a concert at a Paper Museum/Gallery in the countryside of Denmark. Luck had it that Randi and I were the other 2 musicians in the band. But the gig had its caveats. We could only get money if we used actual paper to make our sounds. So we all scrambled to find interesting types of paper in the studio there and we briefly practiced incorporating these sounds to our normal trio world. Lo and behold! It worked.

The public loved the paper sounds and the Paper Trio was born. After that concert we were all inspired to take this trio into the studio and capture these sounds, and more. You can hear the recorded sounds of paper stamping machines and other paper fabrication machines used. Each piece was introduced in the studio simply with a mood or title, and then we started to play. We hope you enjoy this effort as much as we have enjoyed making it”. Das Albumcover wurde von Morten Agergaard gestaltet und greift das skulpturale Klanguniversum des Paper Trio visuell auf. “Hippo Road” erscheint als CD und zum Download.

Foto: Klavs Holsting

@ Plattformen

“With minimal musical means – one piano, one voice and the occasional stardust-shimmer of tinkling bells or subtle electronic loops – Povl Kristian and Randi Pontoppidan summon up a universe of sound. The means themselves conceal an embarrassment of riches. Kristian’s grand piano is a Steinway D recorded with great sensitivity amidst a sepulchral-sounding reverb on melodies that contrast stark intensity with delicate lyricism. Legendary voice-as-instrument performer Pontoppidan has such an eclectic approach that, paired with her broad, multi-octave vocal range, she’s closer to a one-woman choir than a conventional soloist. Heard in duo on this continuously engaging suite of eight songs, the effect is rich and powerful, both entrancingly strange and oddly comforting.” (Chant Records)

@ Randi Pontoppidan

“Recorded live in one day at The Village Studio, near Copenhagen in Denmark, everything on the album was improvised from scratch, with the minimum of prior preparation, and no overdubs. “All the effects and electronic processing are created in the moment”, says Sissel Vera Pettersen. “All the sounds come from the voices, zither or singing bowls, with no pre-made loops or effects. We had no laptops or software, only the hardware of effects boxes and guitar pedals. The only method is to have open ears and try not to filter any of the ideas that come spontaneously. But before some of the takes we might say, “Let’s do something with the sound of breath”, or try something melodic with the two voices weaving into each other, or decide to use the electronics or to go totally acoustic.” Perhaps because of this wide-openness of approach, and the ease with which the duo appear to handle the limitless freedom offered by their methods, Inner Lift is an album that really does impose its presence on the listener. The contents are almost infinitely allusive, evoking inner and outer landscapes through a siren song of ethereal voices, exhalations of breath, and dense expressive effects. While Pettersen and Pontoppidan each have highly developed personal styles that connect modernist extended vocal techniques to “mouth music” and throat-singing, they somehow continue to sound entirely natural and unforced throughout. Indeed, Inner Lift is positively tuneful, replete with inspired impromptu melodies and delicate choral and contrapuntal effects, as one voice provides the rhythmic pulse for the other to decorate.

The addition of plucked and percussive instrumental textures, and the electronic shimmer of the real-time processing, add further layers of interest and allusion. The processed sounds of the humble zither can suggest the innards of an old grandmother clock or the chimes of a church bell, while its rich associative plinkety-plonk might summon up the music of John Cage or even the exotic soundtrack (by Teiji Ito) to Maya Deren’s ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. Similarly, the application of various gizmos can wrap voices in an ecclesiastical cloak of polyphonic plainsong, or assist in the imitation of a police siren’s caterwauling wail. It’s this combination of voices, instruments and electronics that really defines the sound of Inner Lift, and which most marks its considerable success in extending the singers’ expressive range and potential. On the climactic final track, voices, instruments and effects become close to indistinguishable from each other, in a science-fiction sounding ensemble-noise that recalls the pioneer electronic duo Suicide. By any criteria, that’s quite an achievement.” (Chant Records)

Porträt © Hanne Hvattum

@ Chant Records, Sissel Vera Pettersen und Randi Pontoppidan