S p e c t r a l  V o i c e s

Spectral Voices at Star's End Gathering 11/7/98

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's an interview at WNPR's "Where We Live" of Jim Cole speaking about Spectral Voices' music and performing some solo overtone voice/guitar songs.  

 

    

Read an interview with David Opdyke at Ambientrance

Read an interview with Michael Foster at Ambient Visions

Of spectral spiral

Far-reaching and unmoving.
He lives within the golden mean.
The incantations spoken are without language,
They are power within themselves.

No script can put upon the page what is heard or felt.
A voice of prime matter coupled with the integrity of husbandry.
Guardian of innocence and giver of life bring forth that which you know so well.
Let us hear the mist breathe, let us hear what lies in the hollow of our own soul.

This is the statement that cannot be,
He is one who understands the unreasonable chord,
He can traverse the intervals of the abyss.

Appearing from within.
Opaque to those without discernment
Brilliance to those that truly know the art of
Listening.

His children know.                  

                                      ~ Damon Honeycutt

 

Jim Cole began practicing harmonic overtone singing in 1991, inspired by the Harmonic Choir's Hearing Solar Winds.  He founded Spectral Voices and then, intrigued by the reverberant cistern recording of Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening, Jim discovered an ideal space to develop their signature overtone music in an empty water tower.  In 1996 Jim received an artist fellowship award from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, which supported the production and release of Spectral Voices' debut CD Coalescence.  Jim has collaborated with Steve Roach, Mathias Grassow and many other musicians.

 

 

Alan and Jim 

                                     

 

                                                                   spectral voices gather 

                                                         back in the womb of heaven

                                                          scouring the lower depths

                                                    fallen angels rising

                                             demons redeemed

                                        such luminous dark for the weary

                                      spirit traveller

                                       tones rumble to infinity

                                          only to return

   

                                               the voices still rise

                                                  in the parking lot of some retail outlet

                                                       as do the dinosaur bones they covered over

 

                                                                                               ~ Larry Derdeyn

 

Alan Dow began harmonic singing with Jim in 1992.  As a child he learned to sing harmonies and play piano by ear, was in rock groups in high school and college, has sung in a capella groups including the Colgate Thirteen, and dabbled in songwriting, arranging, and recording with his brother Larry for fifteen years.  Alan co-produced Spectral Voices' CD's Coalescence and Sky with Jim.

 

Alan believes he may have been an electric guitar in a former life and lists Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and other guitarists among his main harmonic influences.   He lives with his extremely tolerant wife Karol and four young ones (Wagner, Miller, Humphrey,and Midge) and is a practicing Sesquipedalian Sciolist.

 

Jim Desmond has performed as a vocalist and pianist in a variety of settings and genres. As tenor in the New York vocal ensemble Toby Twining Music, he contributed his abilities with various extended vocal techniques, most notably harmonic overtone singing. He received his B.A. in music at Wesleyan University where he studied choral conducting with conductor/composer Neely Bruce. There Jim also sang with various a cappella groups and studied voice and music from many cultures. Jim currently performs music from the Republic of Georgia, and plays various instruments as a world/folk dance musician. He thoroughly enjoyed singing with Spectral Voices from 1996 to 2001.

 

"To be able to sing the way we do together -- that is a gift.  We tread the nebulous waves of space and cascade into shimmering realms.   We eclipse the mundane and move past the known into the intuitive.   No words can describe that place or that feeling:  it is like some ancient and eternal understanding for what binds the universe, and what connects us all.  It reminds us that there are other planes to explore;   we see as much or as little as we open our eyes, ears, and heart to.   We are fortunate."                                         ~  Jim Desmond

 

 

 

 

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