CPR Demonstrations, talks and seminars

Singing whispers, croaks, growls and roars: An exploration of fractured voices from the Blues to Flamenco - Nick Hobbs [April 2006]
Nick explores throat singing (as opposed to overtone singing) and speculates on what these voices mean and why they are so rare in Western Culture.

The lecture will explore throat singing (as opposed to overtone singing) with audio and video as well as speculations on what these voices mean, why they are so rare in Western Culture, how to categorize them, about their physiology, and a survey of the two traditions which have most entered Western Culture - the Afro-American tradition and the Indo-Pakistani / Romany-Arabic traditions; and will survey Central-Asian throat singing. Nikolai Galen is British, living in Istanbul, a singer, actor, writer and music organizer. He has sung or sings with Kropparna, The Shrubs, Mecca, Infidel, Galen-Sadko, Galen-Klyushnikov, Black Paintings & solo. As well as seven-or-so composed albums, he has recorded three improvised voice records. He has acted in various Pantheatre productions: “Nero”, “La Planque Aux Anges”, “Shadow Boxing”, “Stealing The Show” and “Pandora’s Box”. His writings include the lyrics of his records, the solo performance piece “God Is A Shareholder” about Russia (premiered at the New York Knitting Factory in 1998, performed intermittently thereafter, and broadcast in a live radio version on Resonance FM, London, in 2002), the text, about love and power, of “Pandora’s Box” (performed in the UK during 2000 and 2001), and “Shut Your Eyes”, a poetic investigation of (hetero)sexuality (performances someday). He studied voice, theatre and movement with, amongst others, Angela Caine, Richard Roberts, Venice Manley, members of the Roy Hart Theatre, Bert van Dijk, Nick Nuttgens, Philippe Gaulier, Ray Baskerville, and Pantheatre, and practises Vinyassa Yoga. He was a member of The Alchemical Theatre (London) and Pantheatre UK, and worked with Borderline Theatre (Paris). At the invitation of Pantheatre he has written three lectures: “Weirdo Eccentrics Of The Margins” (on the voice and work of Captain Beefheart), “Women Singers of the Via Negativa” (on women singers who sing, variously, in extraordinary ways) and “Singing whispers, croaks, growls and roars: An exploration of fractured voices from the Blues to Flamenco”. He runs his own concert-management company, Charmenko, working mainly in Eastern Europe. As well as his native English, he speaks Italian, French, Russian, Swedish, German, Spanish, and highly eccentric Turkish, and, until he was made persona-non-grata by the Czechoslovak authorities in the early eighties, used to speak Czech. He is an occasional correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s programme “Global Village”. His website is a site always under construction. Istanbul, January 2006

More information on Singing whispers, croaks, growls and roars: An exploration of fractured voices from the Blues to Flamenco - Nick Hobbs is available online at:
www.voiceofshade.net