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| oscillation series - sonic theories and practices #3 - The Voice in Audio Media |
// Talk, Presentation & Sound
// Date: 24. October 2010, 18h
The 3rd session will be dedicated to the voice in audio media.
Abstract Jens Gerrit Papenburg: Tape Voices. On young Elvis Presley’s Hiccup
One of the most common sounds which constituted young Elvis Presley’s vocality is something which can be called hiccup-vocal-style. This vocal style inspired a bunch of rock’n’roll singers and became a part of the signature sound of the 1950s. The hiccup-vocal-style designates the quick changeover from chest voice to head voice and back again. This can be heard for example in the introduction of Presley’s “Baby, let’s play house” – his fourth single for the record label Sun – whose heavy laden echo sound was produced in 1955 by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee. I argue that this hiccup-vocal-style is a product of a resonance between two elements: Presley’s voice on the one hand and Sam Phillips’s tape-echo-system on the other hand. This resonance constituted a tape voice. This voice concept has two consequences which are not only relevant to rock’n’roll buffs but allow a deeper insight into the relationship between the human body and technology in current media culture. As a tape voice (1) the voice is not only an expression of the interiority, soul or individuality of a subject but it is rather adapted to exteriorities and technology. (2) A tape voice is not a voice which is edited via cut and montage after it is recorded but it is a performative vocal style which is constituted in resonance with the physical structure of tape and its operativity.
Profile of Jens Gerrit Papenburg:
Jens Gerrit Papenburg graduated in musicology, communication studies and business administration in Berlin. In 2005/2006 he started teaching at Humboldt-University and since 2006 is a member of staff in sound studies – acoustic communication from the university of the arts in Berlin. Since April 2006 he is research assistant at the chair of theory and history of popular music at Humboldt-University and co-founder of the project “Sound in Media Culture. Aspects of a Cultural History of Sound” which is funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation).
Erik Bünger: Artist Presentation
Erik Bünger will present his work in relation to the theme of ’the disembodied voice’, a voice that travels between different contexts and historical situations. The rumbling divine voice from everywhere and nowhere, the voice of the demon in search for a body to take hold of, the ceaseless voice inside the head of the schizophrenic and the voice of the crooner who impregnates the listener through the ears.
Profile of Erik Bünger:
Erik Bünger is a swedish artist, composer, musician and writer living in Berlin and Stockholm. He works with recontextualising and remixing media – appropriated from existing music and film – in performances, installations and web projects.
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> October 24, 2010
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