River Song – Vocal Landscapes and the Poetics of Water

About

In the "River Song" interdisciplinary workshop, participants explore vocal performance practices and listening, blending human and non-human voices inspired by the sound of the river.

River Song is an interdisciplinary workshop exploring the relationship between voice, soundscapes and ecological memory. Drawing inspiration from the sounds of water and the metaphorical dimension of the river, the workshop invites participants to use the voice as a means of creative expression. Both ephemeral and deeply embodied, the voice can be transformed by using extended vocal techniques.

Through activities such as listening exercises, vocal improvisation, mimetic singing, gestural expression, writing, field recording and the creation of drawings, participants will observe how the voice can blend with the surroundings. The workshop includes a walk along the Havel River in Berlin, where participants will take inspiration from its landscape.

At a time when the question of ‘Enough' – enough water? enough time to listening? – is increasingly urgent, the workshop invites participants to reflect on the current environmental crisis and the idea of ecological memory: for example, a river carries the memory of floods and droughts in its rocks, sounds and stories. The voice merges with the landscape, becoming the river, an echo, a gesture and a memory. The river - real or imagined - resonates in the shared space. By exploring human and non-human voices, participants will form a choir that flows like a river: silent, loud, noisy, still and moving. In this process, they will develop new narratives of nature-human coexistence.

The workshop will culminate in a group performance presented to a wider audience

Course leader

Alessandra Eramo

Fee info