Vox ex Machina Contributors' Notes

Tomomi Adachi: Kana

Composed and performed by Tomomi Adachi. Recorded at Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany, March 2005.

Contact: Tomomi Adachi, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Sunderweg 1, 44147 Dortmund, Germany. E-mail: <atomo@adachi tomomi.com>. Web site: <www.adachitomomi.com>.

What is the border between pure vocal sounds and spoken words? A laughing voice functions as a sign but it is not a word. What is the border between a meaningful sound and nonsense noise? When the recorded reading of a text is distorted, there is a moment at which a sentence loses its meaning. The distorted sound will then function as a kind of sign. These borders are deliberately manipulated in my composition.

I composed a basic time structure and some phonemic combinations before recording. The details were generated by improvisational interaction between my live voice and computer signal processing (using Max/MSP). The piece was recorded directly on hard disk without any edits or overdubbings. All sounds were produced by my voice; no prerecorded materials were used. The sound-processing techniques used were delay line modulation and sample/playback. I controlled some parameters of the signal-processing patch using a MIDI controller in real time, but they contain some elements I could not control precisely; the consequent sounds balance between controllability and unpredictability. In the latter part of this piece, the basic phonemic structure in Japanese pronunciation is followed; every consonant has a vowel. Listeners who understand Japanese will find some meaningful words from these sounds, but as a sentence, the sounds are almost nonsense. The title KANA forms the final sounds of this piece, predicating many meanings in Japanese, including "may," "metal" and "Japanese syllable letters."

Tomomi Adachi, born in 1972, is a performer/composer, sound poet and video artist. He studied philosophy and aesthetics at Waseda University, Tokyo. Known for his versatile style, he has performed improvised music (solo as well as with numerous musicians) and contemporary music (works by John Cage, Dieter Schnebel, etc.) with voice, computer and self-made instruments in Japan, the U.S.A. and Europe. He performed the Japanese premiere of Kurt Schwitters's Ursonate. He has also composed works for his punkish choir group Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus and has collaborated with many dancers and dance companies. His video work has been screened at European film and video festivals. His CDs include the solo album sparkling materialism (naya records), and, with the Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus, nu (naya records) and yo (Tzadik). He recently has been working in Japan and Germany.

Américo Rodrigues: O som que circula nas veias

Written and performed by Américo Rodrigues (voices, pumpkin stalk, electronics and sound poetry). Recorded, mixed and mastered by César Prata, Reque Rec Studios, Portugal, March 2005.

Contact: Américo Rodrigues, Rua Mouzinho de Albuquerque, 59, Third Floor Esq., 6300 Guarda, Portugal. E-mail: <americo.rodrigues@iol.pt>.

The piece O som que circula nas veias (The Sound that Circulates in the Veins) belongs to a work that I named Aorta tocante (Playing Aorta). In this recent work, edited in Portugal, I use my voice, electronics and a vegetable instrument commonly called "pumpkin trombone," which is, very simply, a pumpkin stalk. This "trombone" is an ephemeral toy, with a short life that poses a stimulating challenge to its users. One starts by cutting the stalk from a pumpkin, preserving the membrane, which, when blown, vibrates in a unique way. Each tube has its own voice. To the voices of the tubes I added my own voice, my own voices. The tubes/stalks of the pumpkins, sticky on the inside, look like the arteries of the body that carry blood and other fluids. This association between the vegetable tubes and the body's tubes (some of which carry the sound of speech) led to the Aorta tocante. What I now do I call...