About the unknown “parallel-third technique” of overtone singing
For decades I have known a technique of Western overtone singing that I heard perform only one time. Many singers use the technique on which it is based, which I call the L-technique, as their standard for singing overtones. But I suspect that this particular technique is unknown to most overtone singers. Since hearing the shimmering, glistening sound of this unique method, I practise it occasionally. Recently I notice it does not sound as clear as it used to, and so it is high time to share it with others, who then can also use it. I am now getting it back in shape again and will present this technique in a live performance as part of a longer piece, next month in my solo show In|nbalance in Potsdam. In this video I tell a bit more about it and show the technique.
I will give three workshops especially for Designing Voices in Potsdam about overtones and resonance stuffed with information and exercises about many overtone singing techniques, from various forms of Tibetan chant through Western techniques to Tuvan/Mongolian techniques.
So the technique has one clear characteristic that makes it stand out: it highlights two overtones while not sounding the overtone that is between them. This goes against the common wisdom of every practising overtone singer, which holds that you try to concentrate the sound energy in one clear, central overtone. With this little-known technique, it seems you sort of split this energy out again in two directions around one central overtone that you cannot hear. When normally you try to focus all energy on, say, overtone number 9, you now adjust your tongue so that the energy flows out to numbers 8 and 10, making both of them loud enough to be heard. A rather unusual procedure. Very characteristic is the combination of the seventh and the ninth overtones, leaving out number eight; and also nine combined with eleven (with number ten being inaudible). (For the microtonality / Just Intonation freaks and serious singers: more details about the overtone range at the bottom of this post)
For reasons I cannot fully fathom myself, I have never spoken to anybody about this technique: not with Michael Vetter, not with Borg Diem Groeneveld or with other overtone singers. Somehow it remained this special treasure all this time. It is possible others have heard it and know more: please drop me a line if you do. Since I do not know if Michael Vetter ever gave this technique a name, I need to come up with one. I usually think of it as the ‘parallel third technique’ but there can be a fourth in the low range and possibly seconds in the higher range. I find the parallel thirds the most striking element, however, so I prefer that name: the “parallel-third technique.”
Interesting detail: the storm created a special atmosphere in the church in Utrecht: this was also clearly palpable in the live broadcast itself. It was amplified by the storm we, listeners, heard at home, raging outside. This situation and the name Töne im Sturm is also very fitting for the theme of the In|nbalance program I am working on. Is it a coincidence that unusually strong winds are blowing around my place in Amsterdam for several days now, in September 2025, while I am working on this piece and this video? Every now and then the rain flies past my window almost horizontally. The wind produces ominous, low rumbles day and night; rustling sounds produced by thousands of leaves come and go in waves; and then there are the ‘ordinary’ sounds of wind, mid-range, between these high and low frequencies. Three stacked layers of sound. Just as in the parallel-third technique itself.
Michael Vetter with brezel (pretzel). Photo by Mark van Tongeren
The radio programme that featured Michael Vetter’s concert, baptised Töne im Sturm (‘Tones in the Storm’) by the singer, was De Wandelende Tak, which mostly featured traditional music from around the world, often original recordings by musicians, ethnomusicologists and other people with special knowledge of that tradition. I was a frequent guest myself in this program with recordings from Siberia, Mongolia, Kalmykia and other places. The overtone singing concert from Vetter was characteristic of the ambiguous status of overtone singing, because it is not traditional music, like the content of nearly all other episodes of De Wandelende Tak. The concert was organised by Diem Groeneveld, a long-time Dutch student of Michael Vetter and a fine overtone singer himself. Walter Slosse was the host who interviewed Groeneveld about Vetter before and after the concert, and it was broadcast by the VPRO.
This is my recording of the radio programme, made on a cassette and later transfered to the computer. There is a silence towards the end for a short while, of which I am not sure at which stage it happened – probably during the A/D conversion.
After listening again, I conclude that Vetter’s technique was in an absolutely superb state at this point,
as can be heard in all the ‘ordinary styles’of overtone singing.The parallel technique becomes clear particularly at around 12:45, and comes back several times later.
Töne im Sturm.
Live radio broadcast for VPRO radio’s
De Wandelende Tak, mid-1990s.
Details about the range of overtones and their distances
For the overtone cogniscenti: the extremes on the recording of my own version are overtones ten and twelve, but I can go as high as twelve and fourteen, and as low as six and eight. Every time, the overtone in between them is not audible. Nearly all these combinations are variations of the interval of a third. The interesting thing is of course that every third is different, as the distance between the two tones grows smaller with every higher step on the harmonic scale. The H6 + H8 combination, my lowest combination, is a near-perfect fourth apart (497 cents, in case you were wondering), then next is the largest third H7 + H9 (a very large major third of 435 cents). The thirds progressively decrease their distance: the smallest and highest interval I could still sing clearly with this technique is a very small minor third of the overtones H12 + H14 (266 cents).
To hear this technique in its full splendour, come to Potsdam next month! And to learn more, I will give three workshops especially for Designing Voices in Potsdam about overtones and resonance stuffed with information and exercises about many overtone singing techniques, from various forms of Tibetan chant through Western techniques to Tuvan/Mongolian techniques.Check out all the details here.
Since the beginning of this year I am preparing a new solo performance. I haven’t conceived of a big solo work for many years; most of my work in the last two decades was about collaborations. I am delighted to announce that I was invited by Alex Nowitz: friend, composer, performer and mastermind behind the Designing Voices Festival, to present my new work there. I was already planning a longer stay in Europe, from early September to early December, so this festival, running from 9 to 12 October 2025, was a perfect match. In the first half of 2025 I have been making design sketches, collecting all kinds of notes, and created several new pieces for the larger work.
But more about that solo piece later. First, I will give an exciting 3-day workshop Overtone Singing and Resonance at Designing Voices, which can better be booked early. So here is the info, in English and German – we will see which language we will use, both can do. The English pdf is here, and then I let Alex introduce my workshop in German.
Im Rahmen dessen findet ein dreitägiger Workshop von Mark van Tongeren statt:
OBERTONGESANG UND RESONANZ.
Alle weiterführenden Informationen siehe PDF im Anhang!
Mark van Tongeren kenne ich seit Ende der 1990er Jahre. Er lebt derzeit mit seiner Familie in Taipeh und reist wegen der DESIGNING VOICES 2025 nach Potsdam an! Mark ist ein Spezialist auf dem Gebiet des Obertongesangs. Ich kenne niemanden, der die unterschiedlichen Ansätze beim Obertonsingen so exzellent beherrscht wie er und sie darüber hinaus auch vermitteln kann! Mark hat alle fernasiatischen Kulturkreise besucht und die jeweiligen Gesangarten in Tuva, Tibet, Mongolei, Kasachstan, usw. studiert. Er berherrscht die meisteKehlsangtechniken aus dem turko-mongolischen Kulturkreis: Sygyt, Kagyraa, Khöömei, usw. Aber auch, was europäische Traditionen des Obertongesangs angeht, kann er getrost als Experte bezeichnet werden. Er weiss, die Unterschiede zwischen diesen und fernasiatischen Ansätzen hör- und erfahrbar zu machen.
Mark hat einen PhD an der Uni Leiden erworben und ein Buch zum Thema veröffentlicht: “Overtone Singing – Harmonic Dimensions of the Human Voice“ (hrg. Terra Nova ). Zudem ist Mark ein wunderbarer Pädagoge und äusserst liebenswerter Mensch.
Der dreitägige Workshop gelangt zusätzlich zu einer Aschlußpräsentation in der Französischen Kirche Potsdam am 12. Okt. Dies findet ab einer Teilnehmeranzahl von mind. 5 Personen statt.
Natürlich würde es mich sehr freuen, wenn sich viele Begeisterte für den Workshop finden. Ich kann das nur jedem/er empfehlen, der/die Interesse an der Erweiterung der eigenen Stimmmöglichkeiten sowohl alleine als auch im Verbund des chorischen Klangerlebinsses hat. Spread the word!
(End of workshop announcement in German)
About my new work In|nbalance
The title of my new work is In|nbalance. It aims to bring together a wide range of vocal and instrumental techniques with questions such as: what can my voice still express when the world seems to be seriously out of balance (hence ‘imbalance‘)? What, if any, are the sounds I can make with my voice and its extensions (instrumental and electronic) that bring balance (hence ‘in balance‘)? How to find my own ‘balance’ as a performer? What new or old sounds do I want to use? And what are their effects, in a time when listening to one another in the world at large reaches a lowpoint I never experienced in my lifetime? How do I give a voice to the news about wars, climate change and other disruptions that we hear about every day? Should I – who never was good at using words in my musical language anyway – look for words to express this struggle, or keep on avoiding verbal, discursive messages altogether?
So far, many tests have been done and they go in either direction: no text <<>> lots of text. It is a new process for me because I never (except a few times, like that TED-x talk) felt an urge to ‘speak’ or to ‘sing about’ something. Now I can no longer pretend I have nothing on my mind or nothing to say: I do. I am experimenting with various methods to incorporate words and meaning – this is my biggest challenge, really. There is also plenty of new-sound-making going on: I look for ways to consolidate overtone singing skills and ideas into more rigorous pieces. Also something I have never really paid enough attention to. So even though I build on skills I posses since a long time, I am pushing myself into new directions.
As for the title itself: it must be handwritten to express the ambiguity in/im balance. I made some sketches only, and I am still searching for other ways. I am also not sure yet whether I want to go for an extreme colour scheme
or keep it more subdued.
The Festival Designing Voices
Alex Nowitz’s Designing Voices Festival is running for the fourth time now. It is a unique festival in that it puts the voice centre stage, in confrontation/extension/collaboration with old and new electronic and digital tools and instruments. A fantastic recurring tool is Alex’s Strophonion, which he developed over many years. I remember him spending weeks at the famous Amsterdam institute STEIM, at a time when its downfall began. Just in time to connect with one of the places that has been instrumental in developing and promoting musical sound generated by hand/arm gestures, since the 1970s. There is the first time I heard Alex’ perform with an earlier prototype of the Strophonion.
Designing Voices does what it says: it pushes for the voice to stretch into new directions, and it does so in a wonderful context of instrumental and electronic support, often including video works. I really can’t emphasise how happy I am with Alex’ invitation, just at a point where I had decided to come up with a full, through-developed work. Designing Voices is a fantastic platform with top performers and a critical audience. Watch this trailer of Designing Voices 2021 to see how wide the scope is (and to see the Church where I will also present my piece):
Klangsinn is the theme of this year. There are 6 concerts and 8 performances taking place. This is the full program for this year (2025) with 20 artists from around the world. Or check the link.
DESIGNING VOICES: Klangsinne
Potsdam, 09.-12. Okt. 2025
Die menschliche Stimme als Kunstobjekt, in all ihrer Breite und Vielfältigkeit live dargeboten, steht im Zentrum des Internationalen Festivals für vokale Performancekunst, Klang & Musik DESIGNING VOICES. Die Kunststimmen erweitern sich durch den Einsatz von Live-Elektronik oder sie treten in Dialog mit akustischen und elektronischen Instrumenten sowie mit Objekten. Das Festival findet als Biennale zum dritten Mal in Potsdam statt. Unter dem diesjährigen Motto „Klangsinne“ beleuchtet das Festival die sinnlichen Aspekte von Stimmklängen und erkundet gleichzeitig den Sinn von Klang im Spiel mit und ohne Sprache.
Es stellen sich 20 Performer:innen in 8 Performances (6 Konzerte) aus dem In- und Ausland vor.
• Alex Nowitz (DE, Stimme, Live-Elektronik [Strophonion])
_____
VOM KLANG ZUM SINN
Französische Kirche Potsdam | 12. Okt.
=> Konzert 6, Teil 1 (19:00)
Mark van Tongeren (NL/TW, Stimme, Effektpedal, Kaosspad, Maultrommel, Objekte)
=> Konzert 6, Teil 2 (20:00)
Casey Moir (AU/SE, Stimme, Effektpedal)
==========
Alle Konstellationen von Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartett bis hin zum Quintett werden in 6 Konzerten mit insgesamt 8 Performances präsentiert. Das Festival vergibt zwei Kompositionsaufträge, die mit Meinrad Kneer’s PHOSPHOROS Ensemble (DE) und Casey Moir’s VIVA VOCAL Ensemble (SE) zur Uraufführung gelangen.
An zwei Tagen ist DESIGNING VOICES Gast in der fabrik Potsdam. Die Themen lauten:
• Vom Sinn zum Klang (Fr., 10. Okt., 19:00)
• Die lange Nacht der kuriosen Stimmen (Sa., 11. Okt., 19:00)
Zwei Soloperformances beschließen das Festival in der Französischen Kirche Potsdam und sehen sich folgender Thematik verpflichtet:
• Vom Klang zum Sinn (So., 12. Okt., 19:00)
Die Eröffnungsveranstaltung mit einer Auswahl der am Festival beteiligten Künstler:innen findet im Potsdamer museum FLUXUS+ statt:
• Eröffnung– Infoveranstaltung mit Gesprächen und Videos (Do., 9.Okt., 19:00)
Der Eintritt hierfür ist frei.
Gefördert vom Musikfonds e.V. und Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg
==========
TICKETS (Abendkasse)
1 Einzelkonzert
15.- € (regulär) / 10.- € (ermäßigt)
Tagespass (alle Konzerte pro Tag)
25.- € / 15.- €
Festivalpass (alle Konzerte an den drei Tagen)
60.- € / 40.- €
Freier Eintritt zur Eröffnung (Infoveranstaltung) am 9. Okt. im museum FLUXUS+.
_____
Workshop
60.- € / 40.- €
ANMELDUNG ZUM WORKSHOP
designing-voices@nowitz.de
• Workshopteilnehmende erhalten vergünstigten Zugang zu den Performances für 5.- € pro Konzert.
==========
TEAM
• Künstlerische Leitung: Alex Nowitz
• Produktionsleitung: Frauke Niemann
• Technische Leitung: Tamás Blénessy (museum FLUSXUS+), Ralf Grüneberg (fabrik Potsdam) & Michael Zillmann (Französische Kirche Potsdam)
• Mitarbeit: Brenda Alamilla (Grafik)
• Dokumentation: Sirko Knüpfer (Video), Leon Fiedler (Audio) & Sebastian Rausch (Foto)
==========
[ENGLISH]
The festival DESIGNING VOICES 2025 features 6 concerts and a workshop by Mark Van Tongeren on Overtone Singing and Resonance!
The third edition of the international festival for vocal performance art, sound & music explores the theme of “Klangsinne” [Senses for Sound].
20 artists perform in 6 concerts with 8 performance acts over 4 days, with two newly commissioned works.
• Mark van Tongeren (NL/TW, voice, kaosspad, objects)
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Overtone singer and ethnomusicologist Mark Van Tongeren gives a three-day workshop on Overtone Singing and Resonance.
09–11 Oct · Workshop (opt. performance on 12 Oct)
Potsdam (DE), 9–12 Oct. 2025.
Venues: fabrik Potsdam, Französische Kirche Potsdam, museum FLUXUS+ & Treffpunkt Freizeit – Familienzentrum und Mehrgenerationenhaus
Supported by the Musikfonds e.V. funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and by the Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the Land Brandenburg [Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur].
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PHOTO CREDITS
Casey Moir • PHOTO Dawid Laskowski
Mark van Tongeren • PHOTO Yi-Jin Xie
Ensemble KLANGPAKT • PHOTO_COLLAGE
• Matthias Bauer • PHOTO Peter Gannushkin
• Matthias Badczong & Christine Paté • PHOTO T. Tarczynski
Afterthought: this is the third time in a few years that I present new work in Germany: 2 years ago I performed at the Ancient Trance festival in Leipzig, also in a church, and before that the German-Chinese-Mongolian composer Yang Song invited me to contribute pre-recorded throat singing and other Mongolian-related vocal styles for her new multichannel electro-acoustic work In Einem Moment, broadcast live on German radio.
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從無聲到有聲 ~ “If I were Helen Keller, Mark Van Tongeren , you are my teacher Sullivan.” 這是我對馬克·德蘇的由衷致意。近日連續驟雨, 時急時緩，時大時小，若不去分別不適或恐懼災變，光聽雨聲，彷彿天地奏出交響的樂章。
很享受今天的課程。大家都好投入，展現了豐富創造力。也在抒發情緒之中宣洩，並在宣洩之後充電，恢復滿滿的活力。- Tina
R E S O N A N C E I X New Hybrid Format
Channel your Beliefs into Sonic Practices
This very complete workshop teaches you the principles of resonance by learning the basics of overtone singing: a special way of listening to and making vocal sounds that has many useful applications for singers and non-singers alike. It requires no previous musical training.
BRIEF OUTLINE
RESONANCE is Mark’s most complete course giving you a thorough basis in practices based around overtone singing and the resonant voice in general. This year we introduce a new format that allows you to learn the basics at your own pace at home. The subsequent stages are:
– an easy-paced, one month online course that introduces many of the basic concepts and practices.
– a four-day in-person workshop to further explore your personal voice and ways to harmonise, resonate and sing overtones together.
– 6 weeks self-study on what you learnt
– a two-day session with a one-on-one class for each student and group pieces and improvisations guided by two Teaching Assistants
– another 9 months access to the online modules
TIMELINE RESONANCE 2025
March 10 – 24: every week one new online module Overtone Singing – Basics
April 10 – 13: (4 days fulltime) Guangfu Workshop
May 31 – June 1: Taipei Workshop
DETAILED PROGRAM
Online March 10-31 (3 weeks) 2025
We start the learning journey online. The online video course contains 3 modules with 35 videos (2 hours total). You will receive one module per week. You can go through the videos at your own pace, and start to practice with the video instructions.
Module A: Introduction to resonance
Module B: The basic techniques of overtone singing
Module C: Polishing your listening and vocal skills
1 live Q&A session with Mark: on 31 March 19:30-20:30
GUANGFU April 10-13 (4 days fulltime) 2025
We come together to sing, listen, sense, resonate together for four days. We immerse ourselves in the resonances of each other’s voices, building on the power that emerges from close-listening. We fine-tune our voices in harmonies – both conventional ‘outer’ harmonies and the ‘inner’ harmonies of overtones. These practices are interspersed with insightful stories from the world’s most iconic traditions of overtone singing, documented by Mark himself in the course of now almost four decades of research and artistic exploration.
Day 1
Finding inner and outer harmony from embodied breath and natural resonance
Day 2
Traditional practise and wisdom explored and utilised for new forms of resonant singing
Day 3
Harmonics as/in healing and therapy: confronting fear, developing self-confidence.
Day 4
Boosting your Resonance and creative applications.
SESSION TIMES GUANGFU
Breakfast 8:00-9:00
Morning sessions: 9:30-12:30
Lunch break: 12:30-14:30
Afternoon sessions: 14:30-16:30 + 17:00-18:00.
Dinner break: 18:00-19:00
Evenings are for resting, self practice, jamming…til 22:00
THEMES FOR THESE FOUR-DAYS
° learn to sing the basic techniques of overtone singing: NG (gong), RR (bird), LL (sygyt), vowel (ee-uu)
° enrich your vocal resonance
° meditative and therapeutic practices
° embodied listening, embodied vocalising
° musical wisdom from Christian, Buddhist, and indigenous spiritualities
° Mongolian and Siberian and Tibetan forms of throat singing
Like no other, Mark has single-handedly undertaken enduring, in-depth investigations into all the major traditions of overtone singing: Tuva and the Siberian and Mongolian Altai, Tibet, Sardinia, South-Africa.
LISTENING
° break through your habitual patterns of hearing and making sound
° hearing overtones in the colours and timbres of a voice
° ‘ear cleaning’: make a new start listening to all sound instead of familiar patterns
RESONANT ENCOUNTERS
° guided resonating with one or more voices
° giving feedback to each other’s voices
VOCAL STYLE and INSTRUMENTS
The main emphasis is on using / applying / hearing resonance with a relaxed, more occidental voice. Short introductions to the pressed, guttural voices of throat singing, for example Tuvan khöömei and sygyt are also given for comparison. We will learn some pieces and guided improvisations by by Mark and also create our own. In addition we will use instruments such as singing bowls, bells, lutes and fiddles. You are encouraged to bring your own – the greater the resonant spectrum, the better!
6-WEEK SELF-STUDY
As you continue your journey with your own voice, we provide you with a curated selection of some of the most interesting and important videos on the internet. These will guarantee to keep you inspired in your own practise and deepen your understanding.
English only –Mandarin may not be available.
Optional: organise your own online or in-person gatherings to learn with/from each other, discuss videos, etc..
TAIPEI May 31- June 1 (2 days) 2025
In this weekend, Mark and his teaching assistants will build upon the results from the previous 4-day immersive workshop and your personal journey over the next 6 weeks. Much time is spent on technical work, which will be different for each student.
The basis of resonance is concentrated voice/body work, balance of body-mind exercise and good overtone singing skills. Each student will have a one-on-one private sessions with Mark to erase stumbleblocks. We work in small groups and collectively on pieces we learnt or new work. After this weekend, you will know your strengths and which direction to go. On the second afternoon we create a final piece about Sound at the Centre of the Universe.
SESSION TIMES at JOYFUL LIVING
Arrival time: 09:00
Morning sessions: 9:30-12:00
Lunch 12:00-13:30
Afternoon sessions: 13:30-16:30
latest finish time: 18:00
LANGUAGE
The course will be conducted in English. Our interpreter Sunny Chen will be present to summarise or translate entire parts of the course into Mandarin, depending on the needs.
FOR WHOM?
No previous musical experience is required. All levels welcome.
We’ve had office workers, people with speech problems, poets, singing bowl players, linguists, sanyassins, professional singers, dancers, academics in previous R E S O N A N C E courses. Anyone who is curious about developing her or his voice potential, whether professional or amateur or non-singer, will benefit from these lessons.
PRICING
Full price NT$ 52.000
Up to 7 February 2025
Early Bird / 15% off NT$ 44.200
Resonance / Old Students / IUooUI 30% off NT$ 36.400
8 February till 10 March 2025:
Full price NT$ 52.000
Bring a friend / 5% off : – NT$ 2500
TOSA members / 10% off NT$ 46.800
Included:
Tuition
Guangfu lodging in shared rooms (a private room if available).
Guanfu Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Coffee and snacks
Taipei Lunches
Not included:
Transport to the retreat in Hualien
To bring:
Please bring some instruments of your own.
It is also possible to pre-order a shruti box from Mark to help your own practice during and after the workshop. For pre-orders discounts apply, inquire for the details.
REGISTER
We remain the right to change program time and contents.
This workshop is brought to you by Mark van Tongeren, Jackal Mei, Sunny Chen and Hsi-Yin Chang.
For any questions about the contents in English ask Mark, in Chinese, ask Jackal Mei.
For registration, lodging and food details ask Hsi-Yin/Jackal.
For contact info see below.
PAYMENT
Payment upon registration by bank or Paypal.
Bank code: 822.
Name of bank: China Trust
Beneficiary: Mark Christiaan van Tongeren
Account number: 163540306745
Make sure to send an email after your payment with the last few digits of your bank account.
CANCELLATION
We try to keep prices reasonable. We will return 90% of the fee if you cancel 31 – 60 days prior to the workshop.
We will return 50% of the fee if you cancel 30 – 15 days prior to the workshop.
We will return 20% of the fee if you cancel within 14 days prior to the workshop.
If you find a substitute for your spot, we will keep 10% of the administration fee.
YOUR GUIDE
Mark van Tongeren is a Dutch sound explorer with a deep interest in the synergy of arts, sciences and contemplative traditions. Mark has over 25 years of experience in theatre, music and dance productions and holds a PhD from Leiden University’s Academy of Creative of Performing Arts. He practices all kinds of voice/music/performance practices for 30 years, often combined with contemplative practices (meditation, pranayama, yoga).
Watch this teaser from the online module showing the 7 basic techniques of overtone singing.
To get an idea of what this workshop is about, listen to Mark’s TEDx talk about listening and singing overtones.
Le Rêve is an album that sprouted from the imagination of the French multi-instrumentalist Arnaud Lechat one Monday afternoon, late 2022. The inspiration was the painting Le Rêve and other work by Henri Rousseau, the fascinating naïve painter in fin-de-siècle / early 1900s Paris. In one inspired flow, Arnaud heard the parts for his own instruments and those I would play or sing. He recorded his own parts that afternoon, one by one as multi-track pieces. Then he invited me to add my own parts, specifying the instruments, moods and such. In a short while, everything fell together wonderfully well. Arnaud arranged the first performance with dancer Zhan Yachun, and several more followed. After those, we created a music-only version of Le Rêve.
When I announced this upcoming album earlier this year, I was in very good spirits about the collaboration with Arnaud. There was the musical click we had had during previous projects, and an intensified click from the music he created for the two of us. We had had frequent contact for over a year about this production, and decided about many issues for the release together. We got close to the stage of pressing the album and needed one final meeting for the last issues regarding the design. And then, all of a sudden, Arnaud was no more.
A big shock.
Our dreams to play this album live vanished. Our dreams for more projects could only remain dreams. The title of the album (which translates as ‘the dream’) haunted me in strange ways. I realised afterwards that the last café where we had met was called Dreamers Coffee. Two days after he left us (and also the day after the gig we had to play without him in Kaohsiung), fate steered me to a café to meet someone, the only option left over. The name? Rêve.
Most of all, it was hard to grasp the reality that someone about my age living a healthy life, died so sudden.
It became clear how Arnaud had touched many people with this generosity and curiosity. He had set up many collaborations, getting the best out of a great variety of people. Some of them did not even consider themselves an artist. Arnaud recognised a talent and created nourishing conditions and used his organising skills so that the talent could emerge, and then merge with his own.
What a privilege it was to know Arnaud, albeit for a few years. And to experience the genesis of a new way to combine improvisation with compositional sketches. Arnaud’s passing is a tremendous loss for the many artists and music lovers, here in the greater Taipei area, and further afield.
Click on the image below to go to Bandcamp to listen,
to buy the physical album
and/or to buy the downloadable audiofiles.
Please note: If you buy / bought Le Rêve through Bandcamp, you use the Bandcamp download function to get your files. Outside Bandcamp (for example when you bought the physical CD), you can use the QR code to go to the Proton-cloud to get your files. If you encounter any problems, let us know and we’ll help you out.
The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work
All of a sudden, Arnaud Lechat passed away on September 19, in the midst of many fine projects he was working on. Not long before, Arnaud had launched several websites, one for this album project (https://lerevemusic.tumblr.com/ ), another for our ALLsymt trio.
His widow immediately decided the album should still be released, but we experienced some delays.
We expect the physical album to be ready on November 7, the way Arnaud prepared and intended it.
For now, do not order the album on Arnaud’s Bandcamp while we are sorting out if and how his account there can be continued.
We will soon add a button to buy the album directly and create a new post, but you can also follow the procedure explained below.
It is time to round up some support for our next album project. Below you can read how to suport our album, but first some more on the genesis of this music and dance piece. Over the last 12 months or so I played quite a few iterations of Arnaud Lechat’s wonderful cycle of compositions called Le Rêve, based on the painting by Henri Rousseau. Arnaud recorded his own parts for flutes, percussion and voice on one afternoon, a year ago or so. He sent me the tracks and soon after I came over to play parts on voice, flutes, mouth-harps and effects, the way he had it in mind. It fitted seamlessly so we did several performances with a dancer. Each time it was different. Some things got better, some things failed or were less interesting. Each time we had Zhan Yachun dancing with us.
The new challenge was to play the music without her dancing. We tried several times. Each time it was different, very different. But the shape became sharp. This year on Fools’ Day, we committed our audio-only version to the recording machine of French recording expert Yannick Dauby. The result was beyond our expectation. We are really excited to put this album into the world: for musicians this is always a special process and event. And not without obstacles. I have had long discussions with Arnaud about the question: to print or not to print? Fewer and fewer people have CD players. Even the car, which was the last bulwark of CD players for many people, is changing to audio and video streaming now. For decades – what I say? – for a hundred or more years, selling records was a means of generating an income for musicians.
The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work
With that epoch coming to an end, one of the ‘traditional’ ways for a musician or record label to recuperate the cost of recording, desiging, printing, distributing and promoting an album is challenging. For 20 years or so we enjoyed the ability to record cheaper, in high quality, and produce small print-runs of CDs. But now physical things are harder to sell. Arnaud tried making an album with a beautiful booklet with poems and art work and a download code – no CD inside. It did not work: buyers still wanted a CD, not just the booklet with download code. But as time goes on, even our CDs are selling fewer and fewer at concerts.
And yet, being musicians, produce we must. The physical CD, a digipack or something similar in carton, without booklet, is taking shape (see the top of the message to get an impression of where the design is going at the moment).
Watch an excerpt from one of the live performances we did of this album, when it was still primarily a music & dance performance (which it also will be: we will do sections of Le Rêve in an entirely new setting in the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in september).
I will spare you the details of why and how we came to the conclusion to put out a physical album in 2024. You can read that in my newsletter if you like (sign up if you like). Here is how you can support us, in order of urgency (most urgent support comes first):
1. Pre-order the album in the making from us, so that we can get part of the production cost together instead of investing our savings. Pay to my bank account or Paypal (see below).
2. Pre-order the album when we (Arnaud and Mark) put it on our Bandcamp pages. Bandcamp is a fantastic medium which pays a very large share to musicians. Compared to Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube it is a musician’s heaven, and a place where fans can express their interest in a very concrete way. Bandcamp is right when it claims that “artists receive 80-85% of every dollar a fan spends” and they pay very soon too, not after 6 or 12 months.
3. Buy the album when it is out, from us or from Bandcamp, or at a concert. You might never play the actual CD, we know, but you can get a download code and we can plan our next album, because people like you bought this one!
One last option: if there hides a philantrope in you, if you like to support the arts and other causes, and if you can easily spend some more, consider to pay more than just the album price. Basically, this is like tipping a waiter, or even sponsoring a project. Bandcamp too has this function to pay more than the set price, and in the last two years I noticed every once in a while fans do indeed pay extra! Every bit counts and the gesture itself is already very encouraging. If you pay more than the album price we have more chances to do more promotion, put out more albums, etc. If you want to support in a more substantial way and are interested in return-favors (a dedication in the album sleeve, a concert at home, etc.), please let us know by sending an email.
Pre-order Le Rêve now!
1. Make your choice:
CD with download code € 15,- + worldwide shipping € 10,- = € 25,-
CD with download code € 15,- + europe shipping € 7,- = € 22,-
CD with download code € 15,- + Netherlands shipping € 5,- = € 20,-
CD with download code NT$ 500,- + Taiwan shipping NT$ 80,- = NT$ 580
Ask us for special rates, for example sending to Japan from Taiwan.
Send a message to info@fusica.nl and cc to Hsi-Yin (hsiyin724@gmail.com) with ‘DreamOrder’ in the subject header or title. Make sure to leave your name + full address + phone (optional) and also let us know your banking name / last 3 digits (for Taiwan).
4. In the planned release month September or October we will send you the album as soon as it is out!
Early Summer IUooUI was invited to sing for the opening of a new Art Museum in Yingge. A beautiful backdrop for our concert, so we gladly accepted and prepared a special program, since it would be an outdoor stage. Upon arrival on a sunny Saturday morning, it turned out that the museum did not show its beautiful surface, but was clad in scaffolding; it also turned out that the backdrop of our designated spot was not the museum at all, but the main stage for the bands that would be featured later; and if that was not enough, contractors were still busy doing construction work using noisy drills. For us, the performance was a disaster, though some listeners had milder opinions.
Upon arrival I had noticed a fascinating adobe-colored tower on the grasslands surrounding the museum. I had had a quick look and listen but was most eager to explore it more indepth and invited my singers to join me after the concert. It turned out to be a splendid work of art, of architecture, or something in between. A sonorous temple graced with the most intricate light patterns I have ever seen on adobe-like structures (earthy hues have been my favorite at least since the beginning of this millennium). These shifting light rays are the result of several horizontal slits placed in irregular intervals along the body of the tower. We stood in awe, listened in awe, walked around in awe. Notwithstanding the presence of a few other visitors, we began quite naturally to emit our first tones. The resulting resonance was as soft and layered as the plastered walls, which had uneven, undulating surfaces that still showed the signs of paintbrushes. Our voices bounced off the walls in a pleasant, smooth way, not as crystal-like and pure as glass-covered structures, but with a coarser grain of sound.
Walking around, you would hear your own sound, or someone else’s suddenly shifting from one direction to a totally different direction. Or even enveloping you from all sides. It is a familiar but surreal phenomenon in many round, resonant spaces with the wall or ceiling curving inward. In certain spots someone who is standing opposite you talking or singing, sounds as if she is behind you.
I knew already during the first glimpse: this is the kind of place I have been looking for in Taiwan for more than ten years. As time passed I knew I had to temper my expectations. There were occasional resonant places, like the one I had stept into earlier this year, but those were usually not very suitable for performing, or not very pleasant to be in, or too expensive or too inaccessible. This new tower was in fact many times better than what I had ever expected. It was not just a sonic treasure, which I somehow usually imagined to be a white or grey space, or otherwise colourless. This was the most intimate, warm, lush light I had seen in years, if I had ever been in such a building at all. It simply seemed to breath by itself already.
We did some more research and learnt to our astonishment that this treasure was not part of the newly opened museum, but it had been standing there for 14 years. Some months later, Sunny noticed an announcement of an event in the tower with the architect, the next day: the day when IUooUI rehearses! I quickly jotted down a simple idea we could sing and shared it. We rehearsed it in the morning and set out to the museum. Exactly at the designated time, the architect appeared from a hidden door, as if coming from nowhere. In the center of the spiraling form he began to talk casually about the history of his tower, its symbolism, problems he had overcome, adaptations to the original idea and more. The place came alive even stronger with these stories. Pei, as the tower is called, really was opened 14 years ago and virtually nothing happened with it, to the chagrin of the architect, Lin Shuen Long.
During the Q&A we introduced ourselves and asked if we could sing a piece to honour the architect and his creation. We spread out and sang Pi:Ecce (I thought the name of the tower was Pi, not Pei). I then started an improvised piece which IUooUI completed beautifully with several solo parts. The architect was enthusiastic about our musical performances and told me something that moved me to the core: “this tower has been waiting for you for fourteen years”.
This place is a treasure, a multi-faceted gem of a building. Not designed with a 3-D program, but by bare hands with mud or clay, just like all that amazing pottery that the small town of Yingge is famous for. Some pottery shops in Yingge have a history of 500 years behind them, and took their technology with them from the mainland. There is no more suitable architectural tribute to the town then a tower designed like most pottery is designed: from an ancient, artisanal practise. We can be greatful to the decisions-makers who planned to build something like this, for chosing this architect, and for both parties to overcome all the hurdles necessary to complete the project. And what is 14 years in the light of generations of pottery making? Now let’s hope steps are taken soon to celebrate the incredible potential of this tower, both visually and acoustically!
Our more or less failed outdoor performance on that early Summer day happened for a good reason. I feel blessed that we ran into something so special.
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
Join me this weekend for the first of three launch events of the book and album Overtone Singing. The first one will be most suitable for people on Asian time (Saturday 7 January at 12 AM for Taipei/Hong Kong) and LA time (US) on Friday 6 January at 8 PM). The second one takes place in NYC (Saturday 14, evening) and Asia (Sunday 15, morning). A third launch in European time will happen on February 4.
I will look back on 30 years of research as a singer and musicologist, tell stories, sing some demos and pieces and there will be one or more special guests to say a word about this book or their own experiences in the field of overtone singing. There will be a short Q&A at the end too.
Please celebrate this occasion with me. We will braodcast on the Fusica YouTube channel. If you would like to receive a notice or subscribe to other notifications, write an email to Jane Tsai by clicking here: jame79522@gmail.com.
A few days ago, Overtone Singing – Hidden Dimensions of the Human Voice has arrived at its distribution centers in the US (NY), Europe (Haarlem) and Taiwan (Longtan). Publisher David Rothenberg produced a beautiful midway solution between paperback and hardcover book, called ‘flexibound.’
That was the signal to also let the Anthology of Overtone Singing go public. First of all on Bandcamp, where the audio is now available for streaming or purchasing. I also submitted all tracks to Apple Music, Spotify etc. etc. 25 Artists that are not featured on Apple Music and Spotify yet now will be represented there. It took me about a year of preparations and it meant not a small thing to press that ‘SUBMIT’ button to me.
So book and music are available now from Terra Nova Press, from me and next week also from a European address. We are still working out the best solution to offer the music and the book in one go. For the moment, the book is available through Terra Nova Press and by writing to me directly, while the Anthology is available in Bandcamp. Possibly we offer both in one package very soon.
There is a limited number of books available with a CD that is nearly identical with the streaming version from Bandcamp: just two tracks have been shortened a bit to fit onto the CD format. Details will soon be published on Bandcamp; you can also write to me if that is what you need.
The major platforms will start selling and shipping the book in December or January.
