Music Store

Mark van Tongeren –  Overtone Singing. Harmonic Dimensions of the Human Voice

Published Autumn 2022 by Terranova. Distribution by MIT Press/ Penguin Random House.

 

 

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In Overtone Singing, ethnomusicologist and singer Mark van Tongeren provides a fascinating insight into the timeless and universal aspects of sound and vibration. Grounded in a decade-long study of Asian music, he draws upon various fieldwork experiences, interviews with eastern and western musicians, in addition to the work of numerous scholars. He presents a multidisciplinary vision on sound that runs from World and contemporary music to the science of acoustics and perception, to music philosophy and the spiritual dimensions of music. Written in a non-technical style, this book and accompanying audio CD are indispensable guides to musicians, listeners and music specialists seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of the human voice, sound and overtones.


Read all about the book and the CD on this page.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Parafonia – Sphere (CD)

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Parafonia is a vocal laboratory doing research into the finer aspects of vocal timbres and harmonics. It is directed by vocalist/musicologist Mark van Tongeren, who coined the phrase ‘paraphony’ for his musical research. The 13 tracks of the audiophile album Sphere cover a wide range of styles, united by the quest for new musical directions; the ‘sphere’ is partly determined by the intimate environment of an old Dutch chapel in The Hague, where all recordings were made. Sphere bears the fruits of van Tongeren’s artistic research in the form of some unheard-off overtone singing, as well as the unique instrumental and vocal contributions of each member of Parafonia. With: Rollin Rachele, Sinta Wullur, Gregor Schulenburg, Jessica de Boer, Juri Cainero, Mark van Tongeren (founder/director).

Available as MP3 or CD through CD-Baby.

 


 

Mark van Tongeren – Paraphony. Extended Harmonic Techniques (CD)

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A single human voice, in all its harmonic splendor, recorded on the mountains at the border of Mongolia, in a spectacularly sounding silo, in a former factory, and more …. Paraphony is a journey through resonance inside and outside the body.

From the liner notes: “Not unlike the voice, spaces have a hidden sound spectrum, through their acoustic reverberation. Closed spaces in particular favour certain frequencies while suppressing others. They have a ‘potential voice,’ as it were, that one normally does not hear, but becomes aware of when projecting sounds into a space. …
Overtone singing is a very precise way of bringing to resonance the slumbering sound or voice of a resonant space, using the strict mathematical order of harmonics. The technique invites singers to set up a dialogue with their (acoustical) environment.”

 

Available as MP3 or CD through CD-Baby.

 


 

Oorbeek – Etos (CD)

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Amsterdam’s most uncompromising 7-piece weird-jazz-avant-rock outfit organically blends atmospheric film music with hard rock, tribal vocals with distorted New Age bells and yodel with dub. For experienced listeners only!

 

 

Available as MP3 or CD through CD-Baby.

 


 

Jack Body (composer/director) – Secret Sounds (CD/CD-Rom)

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Secret Sounds refers to the mysterious ‘sounds within sounds’ heard in the playing of jew’s harps (or mouth harps) and in throat-singing. A performer’s mouth cavity amplifies specific harmonics of a fundamental tone creating a higher, more subtle strata of sound. The 2001 Secret Sounds project brought to Wellington, New Zealand, three international artists: Mark van Tongeren (Netherlands), Leo Tadagawa (Japan) and Benicio Sokkong (Philippines). These artists, during a three-month residency, worked with numerous New Zealand composers and performers. This CD is a compilation of recordings from some of the ensuing concerts. Concurrent with the concerts the Adam Gallery hosted an exhibition of jews harps of many cultures, drawn from personal collection of Leo Tadagawa. The CD-ROM included here was a part of that exhibition.

CD with CD-ROM available on

Sounz, Centre for New Zealand Music.


 

Dimitri Shostakovich – Odna (CD) (original soundtrack to the 1931 film by Trauberg and Kozintsev)

 

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Set in late 1920s Leningrad and then in the Altai Mountains in Russian Mongolia, Shostakovich’s second film ODNA (ALONE) features a dazzling score for a huge orchestra including a banda (8 brass band instruments), theremin, (Shostakovich was one of the first composers to write for this new electronic instrument), barrel-organ, a soprano, mezzosoprano, tenor, an overtone singer and choir. It has been reconstructed from the official Russian version of the film by Mark Fitz- Gerald, with the official approval of Mrs Irina Shostakovich. The recording also restores a short Overture [track 1] and a beautiful, lyrical prelude [track 9] that were not used in the film. The booklet includes notes on the music by leading Shostakovich film music expert, John Riley, and on overtone singing by Mark van Tongeren who performs on the recording. There are also transliterations and translations of the vocal score.

 


 

Minghao Xu (director) – Space Sound Voice – A Quest for the Origin of Harmonics (DVD)

raum klang stimme DVD
A film documentary about Overtone Singing and Harmonics by Minghao Xu.

duration 45min

2009

English/German

DVD available on Amazon. (title: Raum Klang Stimme).


 

Jiska Rickels (director) – 4 Elements (DVD)

JiskaRickels_4ElementsDVD
A poetic, prize-winning documentary film about man’s co-existence with the primal elements Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Shot on location in Siberia (firefighters), Alaska (king’s crab fishermen), a German mine and the International Space Station in Kazakhstan. For this last element a long musical piece from Parafonia was used, composed by Horst Rickels, father of the director.

duration 45min

2009

English/German

DVD available on www.bol.com.