Performance for pre-recorded voice and live electronics

DESMONTE is a performance for pre-recorded voice and live electronics exploring vocal timbre at the limits of the (juridical) body. A sonic exploration on the afterlives of colonialism and the violence of borders, the work is part of a long-term study on the so-called “automated dialect recognition,” a proprietary software in use by the German Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, BAMF) since 2017 on cases of undocumented asylum seekers. As a study on the limits and failures of (machine) listening, the composition appropriates and misuses spectral techniques similar to those used by the software, using the voice of Death Metal singer Fernanda Lira (Crypta) as its main sonic material. In DESMONTE, granular synthesis techniques are used to “zoom in” on her fry scream to derive – rather than extract – signals that take control of decisions done through the audio path, which in turn condition a palette of sounds to emerge, from oscillators tuned to her voice’s partials to realtime spectral filtering and re-synthesis. Originally commissioned in 2021 by Festival Novas Frequências (Brazil) and Taking Things Apart (Germany), with partial support by the Junge Akademie der Künste Berlin / NEUSTART Kultur.

• Sektion Section: Feelers, Sensors
• Programm Programme: Feelers, Sensors