okyo

O TRIOM remembers Michael Vetter

Artistic Research, Overtone Singing, People, Projects, Workshops, Writings, 中文, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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During one of my concerts in Taucha, Germany, last month, I asked the audience who knows the name Michael Vetter. Several people raised their hands. But as I expected, many people at the Ancient Trance Festival don’t know his name. Of course, quite a few more may have heard his music in the Age of Spotify: you listen but don’t know what album is playing, now that a physical relationship to the medium (as in the time of LPs, CDs) is outdated. Besides, Ancient Trance is not exactly overlapping with Vetter’s artistic direction. He was much more avant-garde, with musical influences from Baroque to Dada and Fluxus, and a host of visual influences, from mediaeval religious painting and Chinese calligraphy to comics.

In the next few weeks O TRIOM is looking back at the life and work of the instrumentalist, vocalist, painter, poet, pedagogue and ordained Zen master Michael Vetter (1943-2013). We will be showing how his legacy continues to inspire, inform and transform our performing today in several concerts, a lecture and workshops. Why? Certainly not because Vetter was such a fine overtone singer. There are and have been many fine overtone singers, and Vetter’s style of singing and performing was one of many – not ‘just’ one of many, but a very influential one, to be sure. In the 1980s, anyone wanting to do something with overtone singing went to Vetter’s workshops and bought his albums, at least in very active German-speaking areas (and The Netherlands too). Vetter set certain standards for overtone singing, for a certain period of time, and those standards hardly changed.

 

Michael Vetter making Indian ink drawings, Academia Caparaia, Italy, 2009. (Photograph Mark van Tongeren under protection of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND)

The interest of O TRIOM in Vetter also started with overtone singing, but soon branched out in many other directions. For example: Vetter as a typical Zen Buddhist. He insists again and again that one should give undivided attention to what one is doing when making music (or anything else, though he would not talk about anything, but about art). And he applied this attitude in all his music, and all his other creative work, as well as his cooking and everyday life. When I read and re-read his texts, or when I go through the conversations we had and the interviews I did with him, I frequently stumble upon contradictions (literally: ‘counter-speaking’) concerning his spiritual or religious outlook. You may be looking to clarify his positions towards spiritual questions, and find that he has much to say about that. Many people felt he was a very religious person and his biography testifies to that. Certainly a believer! But then you will sooner or later find a remark in which he warns for overzealous religious interpretations. “Here and there one learns about the connection between overtones and Our Lord. That is far removed from me!” And yet, many of his art and music works bear very clear Christian (and not just Zen) elements.

It seems that it does not make sense. And that is exactly what we can take away from Michael Vetter (or maybe from Zen in general), and what keeps me coming back to him for fresh insights: there is no single, or final way to talk about or do anything. There are only temporarily, or partially ‘true’ or ‘convincing’ arguments to believe, or positions to take. As soon as one clings too much to certain truths, it is time to let it go again and look for yet another perspective .

In the weeks to come we will prepare ourselves with this in mind: try as best as you can to follow certain aesthetic and creative paths, and be always willing to throw them overboard again and replace them with something new. I am excited about this moment in our O TRIOM collaboration, which began in early 2022, if I remember well. And I salute the brilliant artist who bridged so many visions and visuals, sounds and musics, thoughts and dreams in a lifetime bursting with creative output.

 

Read an earlier post about why we should remember Michael Vetter here.

 

 

PROGRAM

 

Lecture Transverbal

Time: 6th October (Friday) 2023, 19:00-21:30

Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, 2rd floor

Speaker: prof. CHUNG Mingder (Department of Theatre Arts, TNUA), Mark van Tongeren, LU Qi Chung, LEE Wei Lin

 

Workshop Michael Vetter’s Overtone Singing Methods

Time: 13th October (Friday) 2023, 10:00-17:00

Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, 3rd floor

Facilitator: LU Qi Chung, LEE Wei Lin

 

Workshop OKYO

Time: 17th October (Tuesday) 2023, 10:00-17:00

Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre 3rd floor

Facilitator: Mark van Tongeren

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REGISTER HERE FOR WORKSHOPS AND LECTURE

Overtone Singing Concert for Michael Vetter

21st October (Saturday) 2023, 19:00

22nd October (Sunday) 2023, 14:00

Location: Dreamphony Hall (No. 59, Lane 97, Guangrong Rd, Luzhou District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 247)

FOR CONCERT TICKETS

CLICK HERE

 

 

O TRIOM Artists

LEE Wei Lin

LU Qi Chung

Mark van Tongeren

Production

Organizer| Taiwan Overtone Singing Association TOSA
Executive Producer  | Lee Chichen
Visual Design  | Bai Chi Hao
Image source | Michael Vetter

Lecture| prof. CHUNG Mingder

Taiwan Overtone Singing Association is also on Facebook.

Photos from a 2014 concert by O TRIOM

 

 

 

 

 

O TRIOM 紀念米歇爾·費特大師 系列泛音講座、工作坊暨音樂會

 

【講座】《Transverbal穿越言語》與大師相遇

時間 2023/10/6（五） 19:00-21:30

地點 牯嶺街小劇場二樓藝文空間

講者 鍾明德教授（北藝大戲劇系）、Mark van Tongeren、呂啓仲、李維琳

與談者將說談泛音音樂在台灣發展的故事，從當年北藝大邀請國外泛音音樂家來台傳藝及演出，到《OM泛唱作為藝乘》一書的誕生，泛音藝術家米歇爾・費特大師的生平創作故事，及至往後泛音音樂在台灣生根2022年台灣泛音詠唱協會TOSA的成立。

＊同場放映呂啓仲拍攝之泛音藝術家費特大師來台紀錄片《Transverbal穿越語言的相遇》。

 

 

 

【工作坊】「米歇爾．費特的泛音詠唱法門」

時間 2023/10/13（五） 10:00-17:00

地點 牯嶺街小劇場三樓排練場

講師 呂啓仲、李維琳

｜工作坊內容｜

介紹「泛音唱法」，引領學員如何唱和體驗泛音，藉由唱出和聽到泛音，踏上精神的探險之旅。

 

 

 

【工作坊】「大師OKYO唱誦」工作坊

時間 2023/10/17（二） 10:00-17:00

地點 牯嶺街小劇場三樓排練場

講師 Mark van Tongeren

 

本工作坊將概述 Michael Vetter 的創作生涯，觀察他的作品中音樂/聲音和禪宗幾個主題，以及 20 世紀 90 年代及之後歐洲對禪宗日益增長的興趣如何與費特的作品呼應，以及他如何自由地採用“okyo”並對其進行改造。並一起唱送費特的okyo以及馬克本身創作的365則向費特致敬的 okyo。

點此報名工作坊＆講座

O TRIOM 米歇爾‧費特大師 紀念音樂會

 

時間：

2023/10/21  六 19:00

2023/10/22 日  14:00

 

地點：

夢響廳 Dreamphony Hall

新北市蘆洲區光榮路97巷59號

**捷運蘆洲站步行約5分鐘**

演出者：Mark van Tongeren．呂啓仲．李維琳

三位聲音表演者以跨越言語的表達探索人聲表現的邊界，以他們的人聲演唱以及器樂聲響，延展意義能夠被接收及傳達的邊界，每位聽者能以個人的想像穿越這場聲音表情與意義的互動。

人聲聲音的深深冥想，耳朵為覺察細緻的泛音而內在油然寧靜下來。

踏上一場聲音旅程，深入聲響的世界以及內在生命。人聲與物質物件的探索，不停變化的聲音風景，多層次且豐富，人聲騎乘在器樂的聲響上遨遊，深入潛出，引領聽者進入集體聽覺意識的深處。人聲的合聲搭建起一個強力的通道，彷彿直通天廳的音柱，他們聲音的通道能讓聽者通往似曾相識又聞所未聞得疆域。

OKYO詩文唱誦，極簡而留白，這是泛音音樂傳承的其一精神支脈。本演出亦是對開創性的德國藝術家、作家、教育家米歇爾·費特（Michael Vetter，1943-2013）的生平及創作致敬，他將所有作品的總體概念命名為《Transverbal》—穿越言語。

 音樂會購票點此 

 

 

 

O TRIOM 演出者

李維琳
呂啓仲
Mark van Tongeren 馬克・范・湯可鄰

製作團隊

主辦單位| |台灣泛音詠唱協會

執行製作  | 李紀辰

視覺設計 |  白濟豪

圖片來源 | Michael Vetter

講座講者| 鍾明德教授

台灣泛音詠唱協會Facebook

 

 

 

Read an earlier post about why we should remember Michael Vetter here.

 

HYPNOKYO

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HYPNOKYO

or how to combine the art of writing meaningful non-sense texts with hypnosis methods

 

Next week I am teaching a group of hypnosis students in Taipei. They are the students of a man who goes by the nickname of La Mian (ramen, or Japanese thick noodles) who is specialized in hypnosis and teaches and applies it in a wide range of methods. He came to my workshop Ocean of Voices recently, a 3-day exploration of the richness of musical traditions around the world (focusing on the voice). We had several amazing sessions where everyone went through his or her own transformations while singing, chanting, drumming, playing, or just listening to everyone else. Paths to change the body, change the mind and empower your creative imagination through the voice: a dynamic key or bridge that sits in between the body and mind, working its logical and illogical ways in both directions.

 

 

Photos taken during the Oceaen of Voices of workshop in Nantou, Taiwan. Above, La Mian with the Bunun people from XinYi. Below, session during the workshop.

 

You could call the logical part the verbal: the voice as speech, as reason and gossip.

You could call the illogical part transverbal: the voice as sound and music, as noise and non-sense.

 

Transverbal is a term Michael Vetter coined to group together, and give purpose to, his vast corpus of creative work, in music, in visual arts, in writing. It led, among other things, to his writing of okyo’s, which is Japanese for sutras. His sutras were not Buddhist texts, but used the sounds of the Japanese language as a template from which he created ‘texts’ without meaning. It was not merely a capricious thing, a joke, or an anti-religious sentiment. Vetter was serious about it. He had practised chanting and reciting actual sutras for year after year during his 13 year stay in Japan, going about the streets begging for alms or performing ceremonial. But, in a true Zen vein, he would not eschew the occasional humorous twist in his own okyos either.

 

I got to know Michael Vetter’s okyos in the mid 1990s and was impressed with their form and sound and Vetter’s precise reasoning for why he created them. Later I began to write my own occasional okyos. Last year I decided to write an okyo every day for one year, to commemorate Michael’s birth (in 1943) and passing (in 2013), now eighty and ten years ago. I shape these okyos, naturally, but they also shape me, and invite me or teach me to push for new ideas about sound, language and symbol. Here is one example which I will take to the Hypnokyo workshop:

 

 

Here is another one

And here is one that you can listen to in the video, below:

So next week my okyos are going to be tested by students of hypnosis. They learn a range of sounding techniques that could enhance or expand their hypnosis practise. I am really looking forward to see what they will do with it, and hope I can be their guinea pig to test the efficacy of the okyos. Not long ago, hypnosis was regarded as somewhat occult, esoteric and strange. In recent years it has become more widely accepted and it began to loose its strangeness in public opinion. The approach now seems to be more practical: it is yet another way for us – complicated, sensitive and often limited and hyperrational human beings – to understand the mysteries of life and self, and to make sense of the world around us in new, more attuned ways.

 

You can enjoy listening to one of my okyos in this video (thanks to Sky for editing).

And I will read this week’s episode of one of my favorite newsletters, which happens to be devoted to clinical hypnosis.

Vetter-Transverbal Workshop (1-day Taipei)

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This one-day workshop introduces the work of the influential musician-painter-poet-thinker Michael Vetter. He developed many tools to let students enter into a direct, open dialoge with art and creative processes. Combined with his well-informed reflections about art and spirituality, Vetter’s method makes music and visual arts accessible to many people, with or without an ‘art’ background. Very few artists cover the width and depth as Vetter does, while still being able to teach and inspire anyone from layman to professionals.

Michael Vetter (1943-2013) is probably best known as an overtone singer, but he spend at least as much time as an instrumentalist, painter, poet/writer, visual artist and educator. His life and work defied boundaries. He spent 13 years in Japan, pursuing intensive zen studies with two roshis (1970-1983). He visited Taiwan two times, exhibiting and creating new works, performing and teaching.

Vetter’s method makes music and visual arts accessible to many people, with or without an ‘art’ background. To continue Vetter’s line of creating and understanding art after his passing away in 2013, this workshop will introduce his methods to those who do not know him and go deeper for those who already know his work. The emphasis lies on practical, hands-on experience and getting a feeling for the overall, underlying connections between different art forms.

Program
The day is divided in four parts, which will be woven together to show how they are linked in Vetter’s integral approach to art, called Transverbal.

Heart sutra:    The Hannya shingyo according to Michael Vetter.
Okyo:            Vetter’s approach to the Japanese approach to Indian Buddhist mantras. A practical exploration of transmutations.
Voice:            What is the voice? how can it teach us? Some of Vetter’s answers in theory, but as always practice comes first.
Lines:            Drawing lines, and understanding what simple lines can tell us about art and life. Bring paper and some colour pencils/pens.

 

For whom:        Individuals interested in creative processes (visual, musical), as well as creative professionals seeking to deepen their skills and understanding of the arts. Motivation to try out new things is essential, skills are not essential.
Language:        English (with Chinese translation)
Date/Time        Sunday December 20, 10 AM until 5 PM. Lunch on your own (1-2PM).
Place:            Canjune Training Center
Price:             1800 NT$
Discounts:        students 20% (bring your ID)
Participants:     (min.) 8 – 20 (max.)

 

Info/registration
Interested? Get more inquiries from Mark (info@fusica.nl) or Yvonne (chichenlyv@gmail.com) or just register and we’ll send you the payment details. Call us at 0910382749 (Mark) / 0933178272 (Yvonne).