S'Agapo

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2021-12-28

Label: Feral Note

Cypriot-French soprano Sarah Aristidou has known Cypriot folk songs S’Agapo und Agiá Marína since her childhood. Far from the opera stage she recorded the songs with Turkish-German composer and sound artist Kaan Bulak in the label studio in Berlin. Closely microphoned and electronically augmented, her soprano voice appears more intimate and palpable than on a grand opera stage. In both remixes her voice is carried and surrounded with electronics instead of an orchestra, that creates an experience from a new perspective. The result is the unification of traditional and contemporary influences on a record with two electroacoustic folksongs and remixes thereof. On Feral Note’s tenth release, diverse approaches to art and geographic histories are merged.

S’Agapo was remixed by the Chilean minimal pioneer Ricardo Villalobos and Agía Marína by Peruvian sound artist Ale Hop. In his remix Ricardo Villalobos embeds the soprano voice in his cosmos of lively breathing electronic impulses with expressive breaks and goes on to augmenting, layering, and creating a psychedelic vocal ensemble. In contrast, Ale Hop sets the folksong in a dark and mighty space with profound beats and distortions of the voice that surround the listener in a hallucinatory manner.

Ink paintings being layered through effacing hand gestures, building new structures and finding new depths like Sarah Aristidou’s vocals: the release is visually completed with two videos by the Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad who also made the cover painting specifically for this release. Despite travel restrictions throughout production phases, the collaborative release allowed the artists to virtually stay connected and inspired between Berlin and New York.

Origins is the new release series by Feral Note that follows a contemporary perspective on traditions and folk songs. The series that starts with S’Agapo focuses on music pieces and sounds which were present in the unconsciousness of artists since childhood. Their connection to the modern day is emphasized through electroacoustic production, remixes and visual art.