deconstruction, improvisation & flow
As a vital part of the interactive improvisation sessions in the Folk Song Lab project is the ‘Körsalen’ (Choir Hall) at KMH. It is a room that has both the acoustic and the right feeling for creating good music. All sessions are held here. Floating above the hectic Valhallavägen and with a view of the city in different directions.
In this photo ‘körsalen’ is waiting for us to begin.
The Swedish Research Council support the project Folk Song Lab with a three year grant 2019-2021. We are six persons in the inner project group in this research project with an interdisciplinary approach. We come from different fields and Singers Maria Misgeld, Sofia Sandén, Eva Rune and the project leader Susanne Rosenberg forms the artistic inner circle of Folk Song Lab. When we meet great stuff happens. Everything is documented and reflected on. These two days of session was also filmed with 360° camera.
A lot of experimenting with improvising lyrics is done in the folk song lab sessions. We try to use the formulas inherited in the ballad form, such as rhyme, repetition and certain expressions etc. This session we did use two methods for improvising: end-rhymes and ‘crochet/braid /chain-singing’ meaning that we repeat the subject / word/ rhyme from the last verse at least for two or three verses. This reflects the way the old ballads are created. It’s a strong rhetoric practice that is useful when improvising as well.
Nearly all sessions include someone who never participated before. Today that was not the case. We are all familiar with improvising in a folk song lab session. We find the concentration through mirror-singing and then we fly away on improvisatory adventures.
Today we closed the Folk Song Festival at Eric Sahlström Institute (ESI) with a Folk Song Lab session. The big hall at ESI has a wonderful acoustic that fits well the improvised voices. Thank you all for a heart-warming flow moment.
singing and improvising in smaller or bigger groups is fascinating. We continue to research the limits and possibilities of the folk song. Interacting and giving space to new ideas. One important thing is to also reflect on the result on a personal level. Writing down once own personal experiences of a session.
It is wonderful to do a session of Folk Song Lab with a totally new group of people. Today this happened with a group of singers from different countries and genres at the VoCon meeting during the annual PJP (Pop & Jazz Plattform) conference under AEC (Association Européenne des Conservatoires). This years the conference were situated in Trondheim, Norway. Improvising folk songs: flow creating methods for singing was the headline, and we started of the session without any introduction , just seated in a circle, after a while closing our eyes.
VoCon is a Europe-wide platform for vocal Jazz, Pop and all interested teachers in higher music education. It provides in the need for sharing good practice, thoughts on education, and differences in vision and mission in the various European countries. It is a very personal practice-based platform that aims to connect professional teachers in higher education on a ‘person to person’ base. It is a learning community, practicing what it preaches and also provides and protects free space for sharing topics that emerge on the spot. Professor Marta Raviglia (jazz, voice, impro, ensemble) from the Conservatorio di Musica in Perugia, Italy is the contact person for the VoCon network.
Frank Scherbaum from Berlin came to visit by invitation. We tried out larynx microphones in several workshops. How do they work? Could it be useful in the folk song lab project? The idea is to get recordings that don’t have any disturbing sound from others which means being able to identify who is singing what in a group of singer. And at what time! Also we had the opportunity to register the session with different software.
Eva Rune and Susanne Rosenberg
experimenting with the equipment and software IRL
Frank Scherbaum, who is an expert on larynx-microphones, also have done interesting field recordings in the mountains of Georgia with this equipment. Frank gave as an introduction to Georgian Polyphonic Singing with both sound and video. It’s an amazing work that Frank has done and also the way it has been recorded, where you can separate each voice from each other to be able to listen and learn. This is very interesting input for Folk Song Lab.
Today we have had the pleasure of meeting the singer, musician, story-teller Adama Cissokho from Senegal in a workshop. Adama taught us a lullaby and some other songs. I was a pure pleasure to meet and sing with Adama. Singing from cognitive frames with variation the way of approaching the music is very much the same.
Adama sings a lullaby
Folk Song Lab