(46) Would you be my vocalist --?

Out of real love for the thing, I have chosen to work with music and the human voice. Presently I'm into vocals. By that I mean everything else the voice can do other than singing, talking, or laughing.

This is about other sonorities produced by the body and through the throat.As the great variety of techniques implies, this isn't new, and the importance of finding suitable instrumental support is important to produce a coherent channel construing and fully expounding the manifestation centred around the voice.

Whether slow or fast, I sure am glad to have nothing to do with "singing" and "songs" anymore.It's how I began, though, and I remember many fine ensembles and singers. Some singers were better than others.

The reasons accountable for this seemed to be, according to my preference, apart from immediate means and nasal aspect, the best singers had the best diction and knew how to narrate whatever they sang. The best singers had a way of their own of creating a feeling as they sang.

My transition from "vocals" had to do with the general style and sonority in comparison to what I had always known before; I could describe it as passing from "commercial" to "archetypal." Anyways, in this new field, I realized the qualities of the best vocalists were similar to those of a singer.

It's much in the diction and the immediate means and nasal quality, meaning the less the better, and their capacity to give off a feeling of their own is greatly accentuated or truly visceral. I've worked with many vocalists and ensembles over the years, and I can say that some are seriously more inspired and unrelenting in their commitment to extremities.

Talent is not sufficient to instill passionate pain on its own but requires passion to manifest itself convincingly. So whether I've heard maximums in speed and complexity or simple agonies, through it all, I discerned another aspect behind the best vocalists.

As I said, they are truly visceral and really "feel" the way they express themselves. To demonstrate this further, I'll relate to you this particular experience in the context of my contribution. It was in the course of auditions.

The artists I was with at the time took to recruiting in this way, with this message:

-"Would you be my vocalist—tongue cut, throat slit, hands maimed?”

Among all manners of response, people are crazy—we met exactly who we were waiting to have these qualities and be sufficiently skilled to understand the urgency of our message.

The only difference, in comparison to what you might think, is that if you were to seek him out among others, you would not see any blood.As the recording sessions prove, all the blood and pain, tears and crying, are on the inside, and our vocalist expresses exactly that, as though it were on the outside.

Even if that happened to you—to get your tongue cut, throat slit, and hands maimed—you'd also have to have the skill and inspiration to vocalize it convincingly.

So this particular vocalist was a gifted martyr who transcended the essence of his afflictions to your ear. When the project ended, he went his own way. Although I never saw him again, I always have close at hand the musicologically worthy material, the recordings of our project with that vocalist.

In respect for the truly unique qualities of that person, I have never advertised with that message again.He was the one we were waiting for at that time; he came and left behind a devastating testimony of human expressivity in all tragic, painful capacities. Now we're looking for someone else!