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Recording the Other

by Caroline Kraabel

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about

Recording the Other
Caroline Kraabel, 2011
For mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, piano and four recording/playback devices

Composed in response to a 2011 open call (and subsequently selected for performance) by University of Glasgow for pieces reflecting on (and using broadly the same instrumentation as) Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis and Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses, and their presentations of ‘exotic’ women.

Since the advent of recording technology, people have been keen to record the sounds and images of those less powerful than themselves, or those with fewer choices. These relationships are constantly shifting, thanks in part to the increasing availability of recording technologies. In this piece, each of the instrumentalists records the singer and then plays along with that recording in various combinations and different ways. Are they using recording as a novel way of putting words into people’s mouths (by selection)? Or is the recording imposing its fixity on them? Meanwhile, the singer has recorded the entire piece, though we never get to hear her recording or what use she might make of it.

lyrics

On se permet de me le signaller.
(People feel entitled to inform me)

Je suis l’affaire de chacun et de chacune.
(I am the business of each man and woman.)

A tout moment n’importe qui pourrait se sentir libre de me le rappeler:
(At any time just about anyone could feel free to remind me:)

Viens là.
(Come here. Literally, come there.)

Dévoile-toi
(This could mean unveil yourself or reveal yourself. Show yourself.)

Sois comme moi, mais reste là-bas.
(Be like me, but stay over there.)

Que tu t’éloignes, que tu t’approches, jamais tu ne seras au bon endroit.
(Distancing yourself or closing in, you’ll never be in the right place, at the right distance; you can’t win.)

Nous ne vous comptons pas.
(We do not count you, we do not survey you.
We do not take you into account.)

credits

released May 5, 2022
Caroline Kraabel – voice
Lucy Railton – cello
Rowland Sutherland – flute
Veryan Weston – piano

Words, music, and recording by Caroline Kraabel
Mixed by John Edwards

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Caroline Kraabel London, UK

Caroline Kraabel is an improviser in music, art, politics and life.

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