ParaTheatrical ReSearch
in association with Vertical Pool Productions presents

click images above for production details on this CD

"Songs as Vehicles" (music CD)
Recorded inside the cavernous Marin Headlands bunkers (2004/2005).
Produced and recorded by Sylvi Alli for Vertical Pool Productions.

This project developed over three months (two 3-4 hour sessions a week; Autumn Equinox to Winter Solstice, 2004) of rigorous paratheatre experiments combining elements of theatre, dance, voice work and standing Zazen meditation towards accessing and embodying the internal landscape. We worked with one song each self-chosen from our genetic ancestry. Our purpose was to build a kind of personal vehicle for expressing that song’s mystery. This happened in solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets and ever-expanding arrays of choral cacophonies. No matter what you hear, everybody is singing a different song.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
We are not improvising. The songs structures are set. However, these structures tend to bend and wander depending on the internal sources we are accessing in the moment. We are not randomly toning. All the sounds you hear stem from each of the songs themselves. We have taken our cues from the jungle birds whose individual songs approach cacophonies of call and response, all the while maintaining their unique integrities. Alas, we are not fine-feathered winged creatures but two-footed humans struggling through our limitations to achieve even fleeting moments of such aviary grace. This was the experiment, the process and the goal. -- Antero Alli

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The Singers and Their Genetic Sources

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Top row, left to right: JoJo Razor (Scotland), Lily Nova (France), Julian Simeon
(Philippines), Olga Kupriyanova (Bulgaria), Gary Belanoff (Russia), Robin Coomer
(Ireland), Bottom row, left to right: Nick Walker (Autism), Linda Rose (Sicily),
Antero Alli (Finland), and Sylvi Pickering-Alli (the Deep South, USA).

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ORDERING INFORMATION

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The Song-as-Vehicle Lab page
overview and techniques employed

Embodied Voice for Women
workshops led by Sylvi Alli

Paratheatre Video Documents (on dvd)
"Crux", "Archaic Community", "Orphans of Delirium"

ParaTheatrical ReSearch
group ritual dynamics in theory & practice

Paratheatre F.A.Q.
infrequently asked questions

MP3 file
from "Songs as Vehicles"

Vertical Pool Site Map