ACCLAIMED COMPOSER AND PRODUCER RUBY SINGH BRINGS TOGETHER AN ENSEMBLE OF INDIGENOUS, INUIT, BLACK, AND SOUTH ASIAN VOICES TOGETHER FOR VOX.INFOLD, SET FOR RELEASE ON JANUARY 31, 2022 VIA BANDCAMP (FEBRUARY 18, 2022 EVERYWHERE ELSE)
WATCH AND SHARE “NAKSHATRA” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NAKSHATRA” HERE
Photo Credit: Christine Cofsky // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Vox.Infold, the latest album from Ruby Singh, is an a cappella offering, composed and (remarkably) recorded at a time when singing together was something that could kill us. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and amidst potent social unrest, this powerhouse vocal ensemble of Indigenous, Inuit, Black, and South Asian voices, reimagined how to sing together. The resulting work is so much more than a convergence of diverse vocal traditions but a complex rendering of what’s possible when we can hold each other's humanity. The album dives into a full bodied, resonant and sensuous expression housed in polyrhythm, lush harmonies, mimicry, and polyphonic poetry. The resulting sonic landscape encompasses a non-linear journey in which we may find and care for each other. Evoking loneliness, joy, the mysterious and supernatural, Vox.Infold brings together musical luminaries, Dawn Pemberton, Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik of PIQSIQ, Russell Wallace, Tiffany Moses, Shamik Bilgi and Ruby Singh. They remind us that the human voice is an adaptation of the metabolic activity most crucial to our existence – breathing. This is how the atmosphere enters our beings and how we know we are intimately connected to our world.
The debut single for Vox.Infold, “Nakshatra”, is the name for “the lunar mansion in Indian Astronomy, carrying with it the light that shines through the darkness,” says Singh. “Just like the moon shifts the tide, ‘Nakshatra’ has a gravity that pulls us in and provides buoyancy for these troubled times. It begins with tonal invitations that shift and move into rhythmic pulses of Katajuk (Inuit throat singing) dropping into a beatbox vocal orchestra with cascading melodies and harmony. As it settles, the song carries you on a determined current reaching for impossible futures.”
The accompanying video weaves ever shifting golden threads that represent these distinct voices coming together to create a whole, offering tension and release, are the movements of Laura June Albert. The video was created by Singh with the mentorship of Sammy Chien of the Chimerik 似不像 Collective.
WATCH AND SHARE “NAKSHATRA” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NAKSHATRA” HERE
“NAKSHATRA” SINGLE ART // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
MORE ABOUT VOX.INFOLD
“Not only the pandemic but the severe racial inequities faced by the Black community and the genocidal origins of Canada were really coming to light in the mainstream media and that takes a real toll on those racialized communities,” says Singh. “I wanted to see what it might mean to make music outside of the lens and influence of white supremacy and capitalism. This work is really a testament to how these incredible artists came together to lift each other's spirits in these challenging times.” Brewed in uncertainty this crew held steadfast to their callings, protected by shields and masks, distanced over 20ft, armed with microphones, loopstations and studio space at the Western Front in Vancouver to create a complex, potent and innovative album. The album was recorded and mixed by John Raham at AfterLife Studios on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh Nations.
Vox.Infold will be presented at the PUSH festival in Vancouver running from January 20-30, 2022 at the ground breaking LOBE spatial sound studios. An array of speakers run across the ceiling and under the floor in conjunction with custom-designed vibroacoustic floor panels, entirely surrounding the listener in an immersive and haptic listening experience. Using 4D sound technology, their voices ebb and flow, forming sonic environments holographically and without perceivable sources. LOBE studios is one of three of its kind on the planet and the only one in North America.
Ruby Singh is a multi award winning composer and producer that has been a longtime beloved member of the Vancouver artistic community. His creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, photography and film engaging with mythos, memory, justice and fantasy. Singh is an artist whose work is informed by sound found all around us, from the whirling planets and stars of distant galaxies to percussion of an umbrella under coastal rains, to the perpetual moving birdsong of the never ending dawn chorus, constantly circling the globe. The richly imaginative visual textures to his sound design have found kinship in the theatre, film and dance worlds, where he has been celebrated by multiple Jessie and Leo Award nominations. He believes in art’s ability to reimagine futures, to repurpose aesthetic freedoms toward civil and environmental justice. His distinct approach uses traditional and emergent sonic practices to create compositions that express the vast spectrum of the human experience. Singh’s artistic impulses gravitates in many directions, his previous works range from the ambient audio-visual worlds of the Polyphonic Garden to Jhalaak, a Sufi hip-hop album made alongside Manganiyar musicians recorded in the clay huts of the Thar desert in Rajasthan India, reinterpreting 13th century Sufi poetry.
