Ekmeles: Nonsongs

Amidst the extended vocal techniques and toy ratchets of Katherine Balch’s forgetting, the second of three pieces here, you may be able to pick out this key phrase from Katie Ford’s Estrangement, which provides the text: “Only the song took formidable work to forget.” It’s going to take more than that to forget what this adventurous vocal sextet has delivered on their third album. Directed by baritone Jeffrey Gavett and including soprano Charlotte Mundy, mezzo soprano Elisa Sutherland, countertenor Timothy Parsons, tenor Tomás Cruz, and bass Steven Hrycelak, Ekmeles sound even more like one entity than on the “rich feast” of their last album.

The opening piece, Wolfgang von Schweinitz’s Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles: “DADA NONO & REJOICE,” requires a daunting command of pitch to execute his microtonal conception. Ekmeles are not only up to the challenge, but sound like they’re having fun doing it. The text is a baffling hymn written by von Schweinitz, using syllables based on eight languages, that somehow manages to provide the resolution even an atheist finds comforting from such works. Finally, we get George Lewis’ Lone Coast, based on a poem by Nathaniel Mackey, which has a strong narrative feel as the singers play tiny gongs to the accompaniment of Iwo Jedynecki’s accordion. Mackey, who was addressing nomadism in all its forms, including through the history of the Ohlone, an ancient Californian tribe, also gives the album its name. In Scene 4, the group sings: “Refugees was a word we heard/the nonsong we sang/the song we nonsang/Wept in our sleep/one with what would never be there again/where the Alone live.” Profound stuff and definitely unforgettable.

— Jeremy Shatan, 5.22.2026

Nel 2010 la costituzione dell’ensemble vocale Ekmeles a New York ha riempito un vuoto nella musica cosiddetta contemporanea, ossia quello di un ensemble interamente dedicato alla composizione microtonale. Grazie al baritono e direttore dell’ensemble Jeffrey Gavett è stato possibile creare un’area di interesse per la composizione che non fosse solo creazione di repertorio per voci soliste con carattere strutturalista o post-moderno; l’alternativa si è fondata su una matrice sonora ben delineata e calibrata su alcune caratteristiche tecniche che non si focalizzano ut est sugli insegnamenti del minimalismo americano ma attingono alla natura del suono. Con una graduale espansione dell’obiettivo l’Ekmeles di Gavett ha pian piano approfondito sulla just intonation chiedendo ai cantanti di assimilare nel loro bagaglio formativo ulteriori frequenze (i parziali) e ha puntato sull’eliminazione del vibrato lirico in modo da far risaltare le minime differenze microtonali: lo spettro acustico delle voci è puro, immediatamente disponibile per un godimento che piace senz’altro ai seguaci dello spettralismo pur mancando di un’indagine profonda a livello informatico. Per i cantanti dell’Ekmeles (1) non è per nulla facile raggiungere questo risultato perché significa avere a che fare con una memoria acustica dei toni parziali, ampliare la tavolozza delle 12 note e utilizzare testi che foneticamente siano in gradi di ottenere il suono puro.

Dal 2011 ad oggi l’Ekmeles ha esaudito bene il suo compito con moltissime prime assolute (2) e con tre CD riepilogativi per New Focus R. (3). L’ultimo CD intitolato Nonsongs è in pubblicazione e contiene 3 pezzi rappresentativi del loro repertorio, dai quali riconoscere il virtuosismo e un’espressività mirata, cioè basata su una ricerca della microtonalità vocale che ammette però trame ritmiche complesse e passaggi sperimentali. Posto che gran parte delle loro esibizioni sono fruibili anche visivamente attraverso video caricati dall’ensemble sul proprio sito o pagina youtube, va detto che Nonsongs è comunque un ascolto necessario per capire le radici del lavoro dell’Ekmeles, dal momento che contiene 3 composizioni che sono anche tre direzioni di sviluppo:
1) Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles:”DADA NONO & REJOICE” di Wolfgang von Schweinitz, richiama il sistema di notazione di Helmholtz-Ellis progettato da von Schweinitz e Sabat in cui alle note tradizionali vengono aggiunti in partitura dei micro-accidenti, ossia frecce, linee e curve che indicano l’innalzamento o l’abbassamento delle note; è un sistema in cui il cantante riceve conferma della giusta nota solo dopo la verifica dell’incastro armonico allorché sente che è sparita qualsiasi oscillazione o fremito dei suoni (un atto che quindi si regola millimetricamente sulla stretta o rilascio dei muscoli della laringe). Il titolo del brano mette insieme sacro e profano poiché da una parte introduce la novità microtonale (un motetto di nuova concezione secondo le regole del plainsound), dall’altra è una strana combinazione dadaista (contiene un nonsense che gioca con Luigi Nono e la negazione che deriva dal cognome del compositore divisa in due sillabazioni); il testo è un insieme di frammenti di parole ebraiche e tedesche che servono per l’ideazione di fonemi utili per la loro risonanza acustica.
2) forgetting di Katherine Balch, richiama l’indagine della fusione microtonale fatta attraverso la combinazione della microtonalità vocale con suoni di oggetti, in questo caso giocattoli rumorosi azionati nella performance. Balch utilizza una versione decostruita e frammentata di Estrangement, una raccolta poetica di Katie Ford con mescola di linee vocali, parole cantate in inglese, puri fonemi e isolamento di vocali che rendono il testo materia puramente acustica e condizionato dall’azione dei giocattoli. Davanti ad un microtono puro e senza vibrato che subisce il rumore frequenziale del giocattolo, si crea una fusione nell’ascolto, una percezione di sgretolamento, di distorsione, che vuol dare l’illusione di una memoria che si perde (da qui il titolo ‘forgetting’).
3) Lone Coast di George Lewis va ad incidere invece sull’integrazione strumentale della vocalità (la fisarmonica di Iwo Jedynecki) nell’ottica di una ‘comunione’ tra estensioni vocali e strumento; i glissandi, le emissioni granulari, il balbettio o i raschiati laringei si incontrano con i tremoli e le aperture d’aria della fisarmonica. Si tratta di circa 20 minuti di instabilità musicale che vuole però condurre l’ascoltatore nell’alveolo emotivo di una narrazione ben precisa, quella del dramma della comunità afro-americana dopo l’uragano Katrina; la fluttuazione microtonale deve rendere l’idea di un senso di perdita, di deriva e persino di un nomadismo intellettuale simile a quello fornito da Nathaniel Mackey nella sua poesia Lone Coast Anacrusis, in sostanza un trauma trasformato in fonetica.

Per completare su Lewis, va detto che il rapporto dell’Ekmeles con il compositore è tuttora attivo e in espansione. Il 24 maggio l’Ekmeles eseguirà un programma in cui comparirà anche Amo del compositore afroamericano, ispirata da Anton Wilhelm Amo, filosofo del Ghana del settecento che fu catturato dai colonizzatori olandesi e poi ‘offerto’ in dono ad una famiglia di nobili tedeschi ottenendo la sua laurea e il suo lavoro di professore tra Halle e Jena. Lewis ha tratto il testo dalla tesi di dottorato di Amo nel 1734 scritta in latino e sembra averla integrata con frammenti di inglese, tedesco, olandese e di twi, la lingua d’origine di Amo, tutte lingue che il filosofo sapeva parlare. La cosa che colpisce è anche l’argomento controverso di quella tesi, una sull’apatia della mente umana che non ha la capacità di ‘sentire’, una che non può avere sensazioni poiché quest’ultime appartenenti solo al corpo biologico, in tal modo disfacendo il dualismo cartesiano.

Translation:

In 2010, the founding of the vocal ensemble Ekmeles in New York filled a gap in so-called contemporary music: that of an ensemble entirely dedicated to microtonal composition. Thanks to baritone and ensemble director Jeffrey Gavett, it became possible to create an area of compositional interest that was not merely the creation of repertoire for solo voices with a structuralist or post-modern character. The alternative was built on a well-defined sonic matrix, calibrated around certain technical characteristics that do not focus, as such, on the teachings of American minimalism, but draw instead on the nature of sound. With a gradual expansion of its scope, Gavett's Ekmeles progressively deepened its engagement with just intonation, asking singers to assimilate additional frequencies (the partials) into their formal training, and focused on eliminating lyrical vibrato so as to bring out the smallest microtonal differences. The acoustic spectrum of the voices is pure, immediately available for an enjoyment that certainly appeals to followers of spectralism, even though it lacks a deep investigation at the computational level. For the singers of Ekmeles (1), achieving this result is by no means easy, because it means dealing with an acoustic memory of partial tones, expanding the palette beyond 12 notes, and using texts that are phonetically capable of producing pure sound.

From 2011 to the present, Ekmeles has fulfilled its mission well, with a great many world premieres (2) and three retrospective CDs on New Focus Recordings (3). The latest CD, titled Nonsongs, is forthcoming and contains three pieces representative of their repertoire, through which one can recognize both virtuosity and a focused expressivity, that is, one grounded in a pursuit of vocal microtonality that nevertheless admits complex rhythmic textures and experimental passages. Given that a large part of their performances can also be experienced visually through videos uploaded by the ensemble on their own website or YouTube channel, it must be said that Nonsongs is nonetheless essential listening for understanding the roots of Ekmeles's work, since it contains three compositions that also represent three directions of development:

1) Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles: "DADA NONO & REJOICE" by Wolfgang von Schweinitz draws on the Helmholtz-Ellis notation system designed by von Schweinitz and Sabat, in which micro-accidentals are added to traditional notes in the score: arrows, lines, and curves indicating the raising or lowering of pitches. It is a system in which the singer receives confirmation of the correct note only after verifying the harmonic interlocking, when they sense that any oscillation or tremor in the sounds has disappeared (an act that is therefore regulated millimeter by millimeter through the tightening or releasing of the laryngeal muscles). The title of the piece brings together the sacred and the profane: on one hand it introduces the microtonal novelty (a newly conceived motet according to the rules of plainsound), and on the other it is a strange Dadaist combination (containing a nonsense that plays on Luigi Nono and the negation derived from the composer's surname split into two syllables). The text is an assemblage of fragments of Hebrew and German words chosen for the phonemes they produce and their acoustic resonance.

2) forgetting by Katherine Balch draws on an investigation of microtonal fusion achieved through the combination of vocal microtonality with the sounds of objects, in this case noisy toys activated during the performance. Balch uses a deconstructed and fragmented version of Estrangement, a poetry collection by Katie Ford, blending vocal lines, words sung in English, pure phonemes, and isolated vowels that render the text purely acoustic material, conditioned by the action of the toys. When a pure, vibrato-free microtone is subjected to the frequency noise of a toy, a fusion is created in the listening experience, a perception of crumbling and distortion, intended to give the illusion of a memory fading away (hence the title forgetting).

3) Lone Coast by George Lewis works instead on the instrumental integration of vocality (the accordion of Iwo Jedynecki) with a view to a "communion" between vocal extensions and instrument. Glissandi, granular emissions, stuttering, and laryngeal scraping meet with the tremoli and air openings of the accordion. It is approximately 20 minutes of musical instability that nonetheless seeks to lead the listener into the emotional cradle of a very precise narrative: that of the drama of the African-American community after Hurricane Katrina. The microtonal fluctuation is meant to convey a sense of loss, of drift, and even of an intellectual nomadism akin to that found in Nathaniel Mackey's poem Lone Coast Anacrusis, essentially a trauma transformed into phonetics.

To complete the picture regarding Lewis: Ekmeles's relationship with the composer remains active and expanding. On May 24, Ekmeles will perform a program that will also include Amo by the African-American composer, inspired by Anton Wilhelm Amo, an eighteenth-century philosopher from Ghana who was captured by Dutch colonizers and then "gifted" to a noble German family, eventually earning his doctorate and working as a professor between Halle and Jena. Lewis drew the text from Amo's 1734 doctoral thesis, written in Latin, and appears to have integrated it with fragments of English, German, Dutch, and Twi, Amo's native language, all languages that the philosopher could speak. What is also striking is the controversial subject of that thesis: one arguing for the apathy of the human mind, which lacks the capacity to "feel" and cannot have sensations, since sensations belong only to the biological body, thereby dismantling Cartesian dualism.

— Ettore Garzia, 6.01.2026

It isn’t often that performers approach microtonal music armed only with a set of tuning forks and their own ingenuity — but for an ensemble like Ekmeles, such resources are no deterrent. In their individual careers, ensemble members Charlotte Mundy, Elisa Sutherland, Timothy Parsons, Tomás Cruz, Steven Hrycelak, and Jeffrey Gavett (director) all engage in projects that bring them to the precipice of singability; but as an ensemble, these six virtuosos are even greater than the sum of their admittedly formidable parts. Their new album Nonsongs (May 2026, New Focus Recordings) contains only three pieces. Yet on this compact, one-hour recording, Ekmeles offers a multidimensional portrait of their interest in microtonality.

The title of the opening track, Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles: DADA NONO & REJOICE, is our first hint about the nature of the journey we’re embarking upon. Not simply a catchy portmanteau, Plainsound refers to a community of composers, performers, and music theorists who write and realize music that experiments with just intonation. Deeply involved in Plainsound, composer Wolfgang von Schweinitz plays with the dissonances of monophony and early polyphony in this “plainsound motet.” Ekmeles begins with a drone of unisons, zooming in on the intricacies of one pitch and using overtone singing to highlight different tones in its harmonic series. Rapidly, however, the piece expands into perfect intervals, then finally emerges fully-fledged into an off-kilter contrapuntal style that characterizes the bulk of the piece.

Achieving a timbre remarkably close to an actual pipe organ, Ekmeles tackles both powerful tutti walls of sound and sudden changes from one vowel to another with absolute accuracy. Their stunning dynamism of timbre and microtonal inflection animates the music, transforming intricate constructions of intervals into something that can be personified: dark and threatening, or playful and even boisterous. One could imagine this piece being set in a medieval church, where long tails of resonance overlap to echo several seconds worth of plainchant at once.

Despite clocking in at just under seven minutes, Katherine Balch’s forgetting feels comparable in scale through its sheer intensity. Such a force of sound is achieved in Balch’s inventive pairing of a chorus of voices with a corresponding chorus of ratchets. All this subverts a diminutive beginning: the ratchets are initially cranked slowly, and their sharp, tinny articulations fall in step with a jumble of aggressive vocables and fragments of distinguishable text from Katie Ford’s 2020 poem “estrangement.” Eventually the text pulls through more decisively: “practice,” “forgetting,” “impossible.”

Soon, Balch’s setting shifts from secco fragments to intersecting, colliding statements of quickly declaimed text. If the ratchets feel in opposition to the poem’s main character or as some pernicious force, the final minute sees them become a rising tide that threatens any semblance of voice. As if melting, the final chord glissandos down slowly as it is increasingly drowned out by the cacophony of the ratchets; in a final act of rebellion, the vocalists pop a sforzando stinger to close.

In another timbral pairing of great variety and nuance, George Lewis’ Lone Coast orchestrates the voices of Ekmeles alongside accordion, performed utterly fearlessly by Iwo Jedynecki. Like the previous track, Lone Coast took shape from a poem, this time “Lone Coast Anacrusis” by Nathaniel Mackey. Lewis’ setting is deeply enjoyable, not only because of the sensitivity of his timbral composites or the creativity of his text painting. Most often, it is because he seizes every opportunity for dramatization, and he does not shy away from the source poem’s gritty, at times obsessive tone. In one especially powerful moment, the ensemble abruptly shifts from mellifluously dovetailing chains of duos and trios to a chorus of haglike snarls, declaiming “like a dreamer” atop a frenetically sawing accordion. The virtuosic work shows Ekmeles’ members in complete lockstep: each unison release and in-tandem swoop of contour happens with absolute precision, executed by a team with both skill and trust.

Music that goes beyond incidental microtonality, like much of the music that Ekmeles champions, can sometimes come off with a bad reputation for being contrived beyond the point of “feeling it.” But on Nonsongs, Ekmeles contradicts that narrative, persuading audiences that committed, attentive performers can surmount those technical or theoretical obstacles to bring real verve to the listening experience.

— Julia Kuhlman, 6.17.2026