If the synthesizer freed composers to create new sounds, and the electronic studio enabled them to create new sound images, then the equivalent liberation for singers would be to abandon words...and create a language of pure sound.
These are what vocalist LISA GERRARD calls shapes: improvised, but precisely felt sounds that meet the emotional demands of the music — but are free from the restrictions of words.
But language has been called no less than "the defining characteristic of human civilization," "the one prime mover of human evolution...technology and social achievements."
Yet the tradition of singing without words has a long history. It extends deep into ancient cultures, moves though folk, sacred and choral music, and has been reinvented today by jazz and avant garde singers — and a new generation of vocalists, searching for a broadly inclusive spirituality in their music: a non-verbal language of the soul.
On this 25th Anniversary retrospective series edition of Hearts of Space, a program called SONGS WITHOUT WORDS. Music is by THOMAS BARQUEE, STEPHAN MICUS, LISA GERRARD, DAVID HYKES and the HARMONIC CHOIR, VAS, and THOMAS OTTEN.
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