Aphir’s choral works for Plastichoir examine how a vocal sound traditionally associated with gentle tranquility and reverence can be warped and manipulated to evoke another, darker, world.
Following the release of her 2020 LP Republic of Paradise, Aphir found herself restless for a new challenge.
The voice, her main instrument and the one constant throughout her diverse work, soon became the focus for this restless energy, and marathon-length vocal improvisation livestreams the means of its outlet.
“My initial goal was to work towards a 48 hour vocal improv livestream and do this by gradually increasing the time I improvised by an hour each stream,” she says. “48 hours seems a bit unhinged to me now, but I’ve made it to 8 hours and I don’t want to stop yet, so I’ll just keep going and see what’s physically possible for me.”
Plastichoir is a collection of lo-fi choral pieces created during these streams. The majority of these works have been used to soundtrack George Goodnow’s Platform Arts exhibition, Soft Edges, which reimagines road signs and streetscapes, exploring how objects that assert order and authority can be made tender, and transformed to tell different narratives (platformarts.org.au/events/gallery-soft-edges).
Aphir’s choral works for Plastichoir are preoccupied with the same theme from the opposite angle, examining how a vocal sound traditionally associated with gentle tranquility and reverence can be warped and manipulated to evoke another, darker, world.
TRACKLISTING
1. emotional earner
2. jelly gun
3. at first with you and me it was the myth
4. waste cascader
5. mask-blue midday sky
6. light polluted her
7. melting cups
8. louveciennes
9. done perceiving
released July 16, 2021, streaming release October 1, 2021
performed and mastered by Becki Whitton
album art by Sam Andrews