This composition by Alessandra Eramo shows for the first time a vocal interpretation of eight onomatopoetic words from the Manifesto of Futurist Music The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo, between sound poetry and noise.
Alessandra Eramo creates harmonious miniatures of rough beauty and embodies urban soundscapes using her voice. Her very original approach to onomatopoeia as well as the humorous, yet profound interpretation of the original material reflects her intense exploration of sounds of industrialized and de-industrialized places of present time. The combination of extended vocal technique, sound poetry and brittle fragments of electronics such as Theremin, tape machines and contact microphone puts a contemporary spotlight on futuristic sound art, it condenses more than a century of bustle and noise and captivates the listener until the last “noise”. The cover artwork Sibili by Alessandra Eramo is a large-format drawing as graphic transcription and gestural interpretation of the onomatopoeic word.
The record is part of Alessandra Eramo's sound performance project “Roars Bangs Booms—7 variations for voice and onomatopoeia.” The first variation was performed in may 2013 at the Gallery Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin. Other variations of the performance were shown at Echo Bücher and Errant Bodies, Berlin, University Bari Aldo Moro, Taranto, Italy, Museruole Festival Innsbruck, Austria, and Museum Fluxus+, Potsdam, Germany.
“Thunder, Whistles, Booms, Grumbles, Snorts... These onomatopoeic words recall the different sounds of the modern industrial landscape. As part of the Manifesto of Futurist Music The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo, they are the starting point of this performance work. 101 years after Russolo's Manifesto, I have written seven sound performance variations for human voice in which noise not only becomes a Leitmotiv, but also turns into musical material itself. I embody these noises. I hear them, I perceive them as urban soundscapes of the present. I transcribe these sounds in drawing and interpret them with my voice and with my body in order to reveal their beauty, while playing with the expectation and imagination of the audience.”
Alessandra Eramo
Published following the performance night “Flumen Sound” at museum Fluxus+, Potsdam, in 2014.
Limited edition of 150 hand numbered copies.
Alessandra Eramo (born 1982 in Taranto, South Italy, lives and works in Berlin), also known under her artist name Ezramo, is an Italian-German sound artist, vocalist and composer who works primarily with voice and noise. She was trained in classical singing, piano and music theory since an early age, studied intermedial arts, experimental music and performance in Milan, Stuttgart and Venice. Through performance, video, drawings and installation, she investigates the tension between vocality and writing, the phonetics, the physicality and trance-like states in singing. The essence of her practice is to destabilize the normal expectations of voice, body and identity in order to trace a new sense of beauty in sound and language. Her artistic production focuses on the juxtaposition between pleasure and disturbance, fragility and power, memory and the present, public space and intimacy.
