In vocal music from the past the voice seems to be there and not there, as if wandering in an in-between realm, between “not yet” and “already gone”, between “not enough” and “too much”. Also there is a tendency to imagine an authentic voice of the past we have lost today. But what if the voice is not just historically lost, but always already structurally lost? What if the voice itself is a phenomenon of loss and imagination? What if voices are always somehow disconnected from the bodies to which they seem to cling, what if voices are Fremdkörper in themselves and at the same time simulators of bodies? How can a voice be more than itself, or pointing at an uncanny surplus which seems to be its essence? Björn Schmelzer will explore this eerie vocal territory from his own experience with his vocal ensemble Graindelavoix and his expertise with performing polyphonic repertoires from the past.
