Swedish Gothenburg-based vocal artist Lindha Kallerdahl (she is also a certified master in the art of Reiki) was told as a child that her voice didn’t fit in with the children’s choir. Her Woice Ensemble, a nine-female vocalist ensemble, including Mariam Wallentin and Maria Palmquist (an earlier version of the ensemble included Danish vocalists Katinka Fogh Vindelev and Anja Tietze Lahrmann) alongside amateur vocalists plus one male drummer, Loui Kallerdahl, is a belated musical experiment with roots in Lallerdahl’s childhood experience.

Kallerdahl wanted to suggest new, unconventional ethereal choir timbres, with female vocalists that she loved and trusted, as it is now the right time to secure ownership, power, and control over the personal and unique voice that resides within each individual. Allowed by Water consists of eight – wordless and with lyrics – impressions or ideas that mix classic tonal sequences with more modern graphic instructions, carefully woven together by Kallerdahl.

The Woice Ensemble performs this 37-minute composition with passion and complete conviction. Allowed by Water questions and replaces norms and rules that usually describe and define music. It reimagines and liberates – simultaneously – sacred ceremonies and spiritual rituals from long centuries of patriarchal dominance while offering a humble and compassionate, open and suggestive magical haven for contemplation.

Eyal Hareuveni

Lindha Kallerdahl (voice), Mariam Wallentin (voice), Maria Palmqvist (voice), Hannah Shermis (voice), Ebba Frisäter (voice), Anna Danielsson (voice), Maja Svantesson (voice), Linda Bjarland (voice), Zoé Blanquer (voice), Loui Kallerdahl (drums)