Alessandra Eramo creates harmonious miniatures of rough beauty and embodies urban soundscapes using her voice. Her very original approach to onomatopoeia as well as the humorous, yet profound interpretation of the original material reflects her intense exploration of sounds of industrialized and de-industrialized places of the present time. The combination of extended vocal technique, sound poetry and brittle fragments of electronics such as the theremin, tape machines and contact microphones puts a contemporary spotlight on futuristic sound art. It condenses more than a century of bustle and noise and captivates the listener until the last “noise”.
The record “Roars bangs booms” (Corvo Records, 2014) is part of Alessandra Eramo’s sound performance project ROARS BANGS BOOMS - 7 variations for voice and onomatopoeia. The first variation was performed in May 2013 at the Gallery Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin. Other variations of the performance were shown at specific locations in Germany, Italy and Austria.
“Thunder, Whistles, Booms, Grumbles, Snorts... These onomatopoeic words recall the different sounds of the modern industrial landscape. As part of the Manifesto of Futurist Music The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo, they are the starting point of this performance work. A hundred and one years after Russolo’s Manifesto, I have written seven sound performance variations for human voice in which noise not only becomes a Leitmotiv, but also turns into musical material itself. I embody these noises. I hear them, I perceive them as urban soundscapes of the present. I transcribe these sounds in drawing and interpret them with my voice and with my body in order to reveal their beauty, while playing with the expectation and imagination of the audience.”
(Alessandra Eramo)
Alessandra Eramo (*1982 Taranto, South Italy) is an Italian-German sound artist and vocalist who lives and works in Berlin. She was trained in classical singing, piano and music theory from an early age. She graduated with honors in visual art, experimental music and performance art at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts Milan and at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, followed by a masters degree in communication and non-verbal languages at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University Ca’ Foscari Venice. She creates performance pieces and compositions, as well as videos and installations, investigating the relation and tension between vocality, orality and writing. The voice is her main instrument, and she radically extends it to discover a personal visceral and archaic language. Her works take on hybrid forms between electroacoustic music and performance artthrough the use of voice, sound, noise, field recording, drawing, gesture and text.
