Thirteen long years have passed since the Danish avant-vocal ensemble Valby Vokalgruppe released its last album first album Bah New Era (Eget Værelse, 2012. The ensemble released a 10” album, De Syv Mundes Fest, Eget Værelse, 2010). Fortunately, this ensemble, which was initiated by vocalist-drummer-percussionist-keyboard player Anja Jacobsen (of Selvhenter, frk. Jacobsen and the art collective eget værelse), and features Sonja LaBianca (the alto sax player of Selvhenter), Cæcilie Trier, and Lil Lacy (both Trier and Lacy are cellists), returns with Solids For Voices.
Solids For Voices offers fourteen short and hypnotic choral pieces calling for a clear state of mind, in recognition of an increasingly fragmented and incoherent reality. This ambitious album offers illuminating arrangements of ritualistic and trance-like vocal compositions, ranging from Jacobsen’s original composition (who also did the cover artwork), three by Valby Vokalgruppe, an excerpt from Symphonie de Ségriès, created by Jacobson, Zoé Perret, Yann Hunziker, and Fanny Perrier Rochas, and a hymn by ancient Greek musician Athénaios Athenaíou, who inscribed his first Delphic hymn on a stone in Delphi in 128 BC.
Jacobson and Valby Vokalgruppe demonstrate how irreverent vocal pieces, with simple wordless harmonies and subtle contributions by New Ondomo player Anders Lauge Meldgaard (who produced De Syv Mundes Fest) and flutist Mette Hommel, can induce a powerful, illuminating trance-like state of mind with no electronics. All the pieces were arranged by Valby Vokalgruppe. Each piece offers distinct, imaginative collective vocal architecture (Jacobsen’s scores often employ geometric notation), sculpting vocals like elastic material in total sonic symbiosis with infectious repetitive motifs and vibrating pulses. The vocal pieces are performed with impressive, radical precision, soft dissonance, and playful intuition that guide the way.
Solids For Voices has a rare emotional effect, calming and cleansing, and offers a highly immersive, ritualistic listening experience. A perfect antidote for our stressful, painful times, and a recommended medicine for opening or closing the day.
Eyal Hareuveni
Cæcilie Trier (voice), Sonja LaBianca (voice), Lil Lacy (voice), Anja Jacobsen (voice, keyboard, percussion), Anders Lauge Meldgaard (New Ondomo), Mette Hommel (flute)
