Signal - sound work and smoke​-​drawing (2011)

from Archive in progress: Commissions and Experiments by Ellen Southern

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A recorded research piece for voice and looped audio of the first ever recorded voice.

Image: smoke-drawing created while singing, 2011. 49cm x 52 cm

While researching recording technology, specifically the 'presence' of a voice in recording, I found that the first recording of a voice is from as long ago as 1860. The unknown voice singing the folksong 'Au Clair De La Lune' was recorded by capturing the vibrations with a stylus on smoke lined paper. It was never played back at the time, the Irish/ French inventor E.L Scott de Martinville had wanted to see what the sound waves would look like visually. So it was a 'drawing' of the voice in smoke. Scientists only converted it to sound and heard it for the first time a few years ago.

With this idea of the presence of a voice in mind, I drew an 'unknown' figure in smoke with a candle, ‘seeking out’ the figure, while softly singing 'Au Clair De La Lune' round and round so I 'forgot' I was singing it; it is singing that isn’t 'meant to be heard', like the 1860 singing. This kind of singing has a certain intimate vocal quality, gradually dropping in pitch as the voice relaxes, which is different to how you normally sing 'out' when you perform.

It reminded me of how I started singing a few years ago, to myself in secret, so that’s like my 'first voice' too. I made two smoke drawings while singing (the lighting of the candle can be heard on the recording). The lyrics from the song tied in with the activity; about not having a pen to write by in the night and that the candle has died; 'je n'ai pas de plume'...'ma chanrelle est morte'. I combined my vocal line with the original 1860 recording, so voices from over 150 years apart are brought together, yet also remain apart, never quite touching.

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from Archive in progress: Commissions and Experiments, track released August 23, 2019

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Ellen Southern Bristol, UK

Selected Releases / Live Recordings / Collaborations / Archived works.

"A strength that can only come from the unseen and the unheard, giving life to bone rattling ritualistic transmissions" - Rough Trade Bristol

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Works Archive: www.ellensouthern.co.uk

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