Superstringtrio

Online Premiere of Superstringtrio’s overtone singing spectacle

29th September 2026About sound, Artistic Research, concerts, News, Overtone Singing, ProjectsACPA, Dokzaal, Leiden University, Live Performances, Mark van Tongeren, Overtone Singing, Rollin Rachele, Superstringtrio

On October 9, 14:30 CEST, the Superstringtrio is presenting its first-ever online presentation of their large-scale work Incognito Ergo Sum. This piece was the result of years of preparation and featured several novel techniques of overtone singing, performed by the acknowledged overtone singers – composers – writers. Of the ± 60 or 70 minute performance, some 40 minutes were kept as an audiovisual documentation (a live video was also made, but the actual performance took place during sunset and was only bright enough at the very beginning to yield useful video materials). During the presentation, they will show the portions of the performance that were shot separately in daylight. The event includes introductions about the long process leading up to Incognito Ergo Sum, details about The Making Of and a Q&A session. It will last about 90 minutes.

Join the free online premiere of the overtone singing spectacle Incognito Ergo Sum by Superstringtrio, with the trio talking about ‘the making of’.

Register with the link on the following page: https://voice-resonance.com/events

Incognito ergo sum was part of the final presentations of the PhD research “Thresholds of the audible: about the multiphony of the body” by Mark van Tongeren.

Recorded March 12, 2013, Dokzaal, Amsterdam

Theatrical direction: Horst Rickels.

Light-performance: Daphne van Tongeren

Video director: René Louter

Sound recordist: Frerik de Jonge, Kleinman Audio

Thanks to: The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University

Frans de Ruiter †, Tim Soekkha

The Superstringtrio does not play strings, counts two permanent members and sustains a holy belief in illusions. Parallel to physicists, who try to uncover the laws underlying the subtle vibrations of invisible ‘matter’, the Superstringtrio digs into the hidden order and chaos of tones. It asks itself: Do we use music to see ourselves or does music use us to see itself?

Rollin Rachele ( www.overtonesinging.com) performs, teaches and composes music all over the world and is involved in many collaborative projects involving music and theatre. His specialisation is Overtone Singing which he has been perfecting since 1979. He finished a 4 year BMus programme studying Hindustani vocal music through Trinity Laban at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London. He worked with Unstructured Light, a multi-disciplinary theatre group in the same city He has recorded several albums, and produced the first book for learning and perfecting overtone singing techniques, first in Dutch (1989, with + cassette), later published in English (1996, with CD) and updated and expanded with DVDs (2010).

Rollin also created the very first music video with overtone singing, accompanied by Celtic artist Kate McKenzie and Classical Indian vocalist Ustad Mohammed Sayeed Khan.

See our earlier post about the Superstringtrio and their performances here.

Photography by Cham Horn (below), Jochem Hartz (others).

4 concerts this week (NL/PL)

15th November 2013Artistic Research, People, ProjectsAMSTERDAM, Audio Art, Audio Art Festival, Bram Stadhouders, concerts, Daphne van Tongeren, Echokamer, Het Poortgebouw, improvisation, Krakow, Marek Cholonewksi, Mark Alban Lotz, Mark van Tongeren, Mediamatic, music, Oorbeek, oorsprong curator series, Overtone Singing, Rollin Rachele, sound-art, Superstringtrio, Voice

dear listeners,

I’d like to announce a couple of concerts in The Netherlands and in Poland in the coming week:

Monday 18 november, AMSTERDAM, Het Poortgebouw, 1st Floor, Tolhuisweg 2: Oorsprong Curator Series, start at 20 o’ clock. Free-improvisation with flutist Mark Alban Lotz and guitarist Bram Stadhouders and vocalist Mark van Tongeren, and several other exciting music/dance impro-combinations in two other sets that same night.
Link: http://oorsprong.wordpress.com/

Thursday 21 November, AMSTERDAM, Mediamatic/Fabriek – Echokamer, 20:30, Superstringtrio (Rollin Rachele, Mark van Tongeren) and Daphne van Tongeren (light/performance).
Echokamer is a series of events during which composers, musicians and other sound-makers experiment with sound at, and with the sound of, Mediamatic Fabriek. The giant industrial hall reverberates and erodes, and produces quite a bit of sound all by itself. The perfect place for noisy experiments. Read more details about Superstringtrio’s sonic excursion next Thursday on this link: http://www.mediamatic.net/357851/en/echokamer-12-superstringtrio

Sunday 24 November, KRAKOW (Poland), Audio Art Festival/Bunkier Sztuki, 19 o’clock, Superstringtrio. We have been invited by Marek Choloniewski, founder of Audio Art Festival, one of the most long-standing festivals dedicated to Sound Art in all its beautiful, radical and weird manifestations, to join the ranks of many artists who have performed there in past decades. Superstringtrio will present an updated version of its performance Incognito Ergo Sum, premiered in Amsterdam earlier this year at the occasion of the PhD-defense of Mark van Tongeren’s Thresholds of the Audible- thesis at Leiden University. See a short clips of it on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/64866998. For the full program of the festival, which has already started yesterday and continues next week, check this link: http://www.audio.art.pl/
(with our thanks to Horst Rickels, who gives a workshop and concert in Krakow tomorrow with his Lesley-speakersystem, together with Robert Pravda).

In a couple of hours I am leaving Taiwan. If all goes well I might join Oorbeek tomorrow, Saturday 16 November at the opening of The New Institute in ROTTERDAM. Set 1 at 17 o’ clock, set 2 at 17:45. 6th floor, Museumpark 25, 3015 CB Rotterdam,
Link: http://www.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/nieuwnew

Hope to see you somewhere!

Best wishes,

mark van tongeren

Jonathan Harvey’s Forms of Emptiness morgen bij Musica Sacra

19th September 2013Overtone Singingboventoonzang, Hans Leenders, In Quest of Spirit, Jonathan Harvey, Karlheinz Stockhausen, koormuziek, Mayuko Vetter, Michael Vetter, Musica Sacra, Rollin Rachele, Studium Chorale, Superstringtrio

Morgen opent het Musica Sacra Festival in Maastricht met Forms of Emptiness van de onlangs overleden Britse componist Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012). Een groots opgezet stuk voor drie koren en twee boventoonzangers op basis van de onovertroffen Hart Soetra (een fascinerende tekst die ik zelf sinds een jaar of wat reciteer) en teksten van E.E. Cummings. Was ik in Nederland geweest, dan had ik meegedaan, maar met Diem Borg Groeneveld hebben ze in ieder geval 1 goede boventoonzanger. Hij laat weten zelf wat meer te doen qua boventonen dan wat de partituur voorschrijft. Waarschijnlijk wist Harvey in 1986 nog niet wat er allemaal mogelijk was, of kon hij niemand vinden die kon doen wat hij graag wilde horen. Neemt niet weg dat Harvey een uitstekende componist was met interessante ideeën over muziek en resonantie, zoals na te lezen in zijn boek In Quest of Spirit.

Overigens is deze week de 70e verjaardag van Michael Vetter, avant-garde fluitist en later ook deelnemer aan Stockhausen’s vroege werken met boventoonzang (maar weer niet de eerste, Stimmung, uit 1968). Vetter’s half-Japanse dochter Mayuko schreef nog vóór Harvey’s stuk uit ’86 een boek vol zeer ingewikkelde boventoonzang-etudes. Zij was toen 6 jaar oud…. (en kon elk stuk zelf zingen). Er was dus wel degelijk meer gaande dan Harvey vermoedde. En nog steeds weten componisten niet goed wat ze moeten of kunnen doen met boventonen. Als alles goed gaat zullen Rollin Rachele en ik, alias het Superstringtrio, in november van dit jaar nog eens laten horen wat je allemaal nog meer kan met vokale boventonen, in Amsterdam en in Polen. We houden je op de hoogte. Eerst genieten van Harvey’s Forms… bij Musica Sacra, gezongen door Studium Chorale o.l.v. dirigent Hans Leenders.