[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Demetrio Stratos: “Flautofonie ed altro”
From the album Cantare la voce (1978)
Born in Alexandria of Greek parents, Demetrio Stratos (1945-1979) spent most of his adult life in Italy. He was one of the founding members of the Italian band Area, an experimental progressive rock/jazz fusion outfit that released five studio albums between the band’s founding in 1972 and Stratos’ death in 1979. (Beyond their music, Area was noted for their left-wing political stance, expressed not only in the band’s lyrics, but also in their appearances at political events such as a concert with Joan Baez in protest of the Vietnam War in 1975.)
Stratos released two studio albums of solo work: Metrodora (1976) and Cantare la voce (1978). These recordings are remarkable documents of Stratos’ uncanny vocal ability. Even for those with adventurous ears, this music can be excruciating to listen to. One cannot help but feel the visceral effort required to invoke these sounds, the incredible duress under which Stratos’ voice is laboring.
(Although Stratos was supposedly able to use overtone-singing techniques to sing up to four parts at once, the distinct vocal sounds on this track were produced through overdubbing in the recording studio.)
Through his research into vocal production, comparative musicology, phonetics, and psychoanalysis, Stratos developed a theory in which the expressive, unconventional, and non-signifying use of the voice as explored in his music came to symbolize the potential for personal and political liberation:
If a new vocality can exist, it must be lived by all, and not singularly: an attempt to get free of the condition of listener and spectator to which the culture and politics have accustomed us. This work cannot be taken up as passive listening, but rather as “a game in which life is at risk.”
A trove of Stratos’ recordings is available at the ever-resourceful UbuWeb.
Played 61 time(s).
May 03, 2010, 3:17pm
