Skaņa, from the Latvian word for “sound,” is a collaboration between French vocalist/composer Muriel Louveau and American composer Charles B. Kim. Melding haunting vocals, ambient electronics and pulsating rhythms, Skaņa seeks to explore the area between day and night, light and shadow, wakefulness and sleep.
The music of Skaņa is inspired by ancient cultures and far off lands but also draws upon distinctly modern musical elements in order to create a sound that is both contemporary and classical.
In this regard, the past is prologue. This is music that would fit just as well in a modern concert hall as in an ancient Roman amphitheater.
Despite the music having groundings in the past, the production of this album was a very 21st century endeavor.
Muriel and Charles relied primarily on email and the occasional phone conversation to communicate ideas to each other and transferred audio files over the Internet. Thanks to modern technology, the end result is the same as if Louveau and Kim had worked in the same studio in the same city.
So the concept of staging Skana as a theatrical journey , with compatible , innovative artists who follow the same cyber creative process came as a natural consequence.
So the concept of staging Skana as a theatrical journey , with compatible , innovative artists who follow the same cyber creative process came as a natural consequence.
And this is what has been happening Muriel ,the dancer Emily Pope Blackman and the lighting designer Dale Knoth have been using Skype to draft ideas and transfer video files
to conceive and build up the structure of the performance.Through the sparse use of new technologies, scenography and creative lightings ,elaboration of a spatial lay out in response to the live elements, we will explore new contemporary territories and together write and perform a new score and story, across many medium
Listen to Skana album on bandcamp.com
