Aria Art
Haunting Cantatas from the soul
Shamanic, abstract and spiritual vocal expressions combined with sound collages and film performance
“Until today, I have done four music albums, 23 music videos and one film soundtrack.
“That through which the sound comes”, the first album, is based on what I ‘thought’ was my intention of how to work with sound as art, back in 2007: using soundscapes as canvases, I would try to ‘compose’ voice, words and instruments in a more ‘free-expression’ way, on an attempt to replicate the action of a creation of a visual painting in the same way as a sound piece.
After this work was concluded, and much voice ‘humming’ came across this ‘free way of composing and playing’ in different parts of the work, while doing the second album.
In “Albedo Feature”, 2009, something unexpected happened; the humming became the main structure of the song. It felt like the natural and true ‘will’ of the work I have been trying to develop – a humming formed by instinct, mindless feelings, non-thoughts. Also, I believe humming can be considered one of the oldest languages or form of singing since pre-historic times, and played an important role as such. As I speak three languages and I consider them all equally important in my life, and still, they are not the original ‘idioms’ or dialects’ from the lands I came from and lived at, my mind struggles to find a specific language to identify and sing with. I sing in English; Spanish; Portuguese; Latin; I tried even ancient Egyptian. But still, the choice of a more ‘universal’ language was a dilemma. In ‘Dryad Anthousai’, 2010, the third album, another radical change; I decided to… not use any lyrics anymore. Mainly because of the language problem, and thinking of ditching the words on an intention to ignore what ‘convention might expect from a sound/music artist – “lyrics”’ – I let the humming take control of the song. It did for a few songs only; yet the result in me was enormous. I felt so ‘at home’ just singing with no lyrics, I thought, ‘Let me keep this wonderful new door open and explore this better in the next work’.
And there comes “Anemonadic“ in 2011, the fourth & last album so far. As my previous promise to my own voice, it has no words or lyrics. The songs have names though – and the only song with words is the piece ‘O Fortunae’ from the medieval poem Carmina Burana which orchestra and opera was composed and adapted by Carl Orff, so here is my own voice arrangement for this part. All the other 13 tracks are voice and sounds only – no words or lyrics at all. We very often listen to songs in foreign languages that we do not know what they are singing or what their words mean – but somehow, we connect with the feelings, melody and intention of that piece in such a way that, at moments, we lose the interest in the song once we understand the original meanings from its words.
Language can be a tool, but also a barrier for expression, comprehension and understanding; as I work my best so far to make these vocals as strong and expressive as possible to not have to need any words at all, it reminds me of instrumental music - the notes and rhythm played solely by an instrument where it needs no words to be understood, appreciated and connected with. I used to listen to Chopin as a small child – and I remember then, having the impression that he was ‘saying’ things with his piano. It was so obvious to me, to ‘read’ complete sentences nonstop from everything he played, and whole stories would come through his pieces, with tension, suspense, sad endings, and love promises.”
Ever Orchid, London January 2011
Cinematic Poem
Through film, a whole new approach to the environment applies. A casual interaction with the ambient related to the song's subject and soundscape that follows the rhythm, the beat and the breath.
That Through Which the sound Comes
Asteroid's Dream, Sheer' Stark, Ether of Speech, Luna llora a Pangea, Death Hunter, Initial Particle, Lilith Love, Angel's Shoes, Nemesis et Felidae, Medicine Wheel, Deva Meditation.
Albedo Feature
Isis Equinox, Pollinia, Queen Sequoiadendron, Babel of Iraq, Alchemical Blood, Pomba-Gira Rainha, Scorpio Flower, Triax Salamander, Naja Naja, The Shaman of Lhasa, Quasar Meditation.
Dryad Anthousai
Ex Pax Orbis, Petal Heart, Cassiopeia, Diamond Nebula, Memories from the Akasha, Dragonfly Lullaby, Gaea Deimos, Unspoken, Emerald Naiads, Nymphaeaceae, Clepsydra Orchid.
Review by Pete Woods
“ 'Dryads are elementals of the trees and Anthousai are elementals from the flowers' states Ever, thankfully clearing up the first question I had about this album. I reviewed the last EP by Ever Orchid and this is actually her third studio album. I did not know quite what to expect here and probably if I had a notion it would have been wrong. So how to describe this? It’s not actually an easy task. First I would say that this is very minimalist and it is also incredibly calming and gentle, so probably not for everyone who visits this site. Although divided into 11 tracks (all with very intriguing names) this flows from one to the next, sometime with just very subtle background noise dividing things. It is all based around Ever’s voice and she is obviously very confident and has to have a very strong presence in order to carry things off as often any instruments are as such seemingly included as an afterthought. For instance on ‘Cassiopeia’ you can only just make something out quietly in the background until a gentle hand drums a light rhythm on what very probably is some kind of ancestral drum. Also you may hear what filmmakers describe as stock footage, the call of tropical birds, the sigh of the sea or whale song.
In a word this is ‘ethereal’, incredibly natural sounding mood music. It kind of has an almost pagan delight to it, I would not have been surprised if Ever had upped the ante and suddenly burst into covering something from The Wicker Man which no doubt would be a delight to hear but probably not on this album. The only artist that I have remotely similar to this is Nebelhexe and that is high praise, perhaps you could vaguely name-drop the likes of say This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance into the mix as well but only fleetingly as this is highly original to my ears. There is some gorgeous piano melody about ‘Memories From The Akasha’ (look it up) whereas the airy and light vocal fluttering of ‘Dragonfly Lullaby’ is very much at one with the fairies and you can almost feel the breath of the elements touching you as wind and water are very subtle in the background, or are they, perhaps I am just hearing things? Any attempts I could make to describe things are surplus to requirements as I have just discovered explanations to all the songs in Ever’s MySpace blog which you can check out along with some of the songs.
At times this feels deeply spiritual and ritualistic and it is obvious that Ever is very much in tune with what she is doing, this spills out of the music and envelopes the listener adding depths that with concentration are richly rewarding. I feel like I have perhaps scratched the surface here and have opened a box which may well unveil more mysteries in time; put simply this is a beautiful, beguiling and spellbinding album."
"If drawings are, as they are, the most intimate, spontaneous and revealing expressions of an artist's sensibility and intelligence, then they will also provide the most acceptable measure of his achievement. Drawings tell the truth about an artist. Painting and sculpture permit a degree of camouflage and equivocation, but nothing can condition the veracity of drawings. Perhaps this is so in part because pencil and paper are not the materials of the artist alone. Drawing is something that is done by everyone. Everyone has at some partaken of a university which invests drawings with immediate and self-evident truth. The value and importance of drawings is certified by the fact that they have been enthusiastically collected and carefully preserved for more than five centuries. Insofar as surviving works provide basis for judgment, it is apparent that the greatest artists have always been great draftsmen, and indeed, that no artist has ever been truly great who was not a great draftsman."
James Lord, on Giacometti's Drawings
"Here is where I start to understand what the ancient was at the very beginning. You did everything singing. And your song traversed the earth. And the woman even, working hard, was happy, because she had the song with her. And her belief system was connected with what she expressed on the songs. So that stayed with me for the whole of life."
Marija Gimbutas, Archeologist
