Little Missenden Festival 2008

 

Little Missenden Festival 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A

 

Event 7 2007

Vocal loops

Askew and Avis

 

Wednesday October 17th 8.00pm

Little Missenden village hall

Tickets £11, with a glass of wine, unreserved seats

Rebecca Askew, Jeremy Avis voices

Robin Whitnell computer, vocal loops

STOP PRESS:  Askew and Avis have recently been funded by the Arts Council to work with Gambian kora player Sura Susso.  Sura will now be making a guest appearance in the second half of this programme, and Robin Whitnell will also be playing bass guitar.

 

Rebecca Askew and Jeremy Avis sing, and Robin Whitnell turns their duo into a whole choir, building up many layers of melody, harmony and rhythm by using laptop wizardry to loop back what they've just sung.

 

They write most of their own songs, rooted in jazz, folk, and early music - "both lyrical and funky with a wide contrast of vocal colours and styles".  

 

“They sing, they tell stories, they make music with their voices...they groove. What they do is unlike anything you have ever heard two vocalists doing live before........

 

Using only their remarkable solo voices Askew and Avis create songs, rhythms and soundscapes before your very ears...... at the same time DJ Robin Whitnell is at work using his laptop and cutting-edge technical wizardry to loop them into a whole virtual band of lyrical and soulful singers

 

“Watching the group live is both a gripping and intriguing experience as the two singers effortlessly manipulate 6 microphones and complex hand signals are relayed to and from the sound-desk on stage. Robin the DJ captures the loops they sing absolutely live and then effects them through an array of octavisers, vocoders and amp types, warping the live vocal input into original sounds and forms” (Matters Musical website)

Rebecca sings and composes jazz and contemporary music, and is involved in music theatre, community arts and schools music workshops.  

 

Jeremy had "classical, opera, rock, world, folk, jazz and middle-eastern phases", involving "Congolese pygmy camps, Pakistani muezzins, boy-band backing groups and warring tribes of medieval musicians".  

 

Both sing with Orlando Gough's amazing vocal ensemble The Shout, and have been working with the Opera Genesis programme at the Royal Opera House.

 

"I love your arrangements which have the intimate feel of soul or jazz vocals about them. The effects (both electronic and vocal) you use, which transform two voices into a whole a capella orchestra, are very clever and have real groove" (Jo Ross, Oxford Contemporary Music).

 

Askew and Avis website

 

Askew and Avis ‘MySpace’ page

 

The Shout website

Askew and Avis

Robin Whitnell

Little Missenden Festival 2007