Harsh Agarwal
I have heard a fair few vocal improvisers in my listening life. They are a rare breed, they inspire wonder most of them, but then comes an improvisers that breaks away from the breed, so far away, that language is not equipped enough to describe the effect they have on you.
That is, but one way, to think of what Pamela Z has achieved with this album.
Everyday experience is never far from Pamela Z’s musical world. Whether it be a typewriter, birdcall, checking in at the airport, or a mess on the street, her creatively quirky imagination transforms it into a moment of profound questioning and wonder. From sonic trifles to complex numbers, the works on A Secret Code – only her third solo album after Echolocation (1988), and A Delay is Better (2004) – span two decades of redefining song.
As fellow composer Annea Lockwood writes in the album notes, “I have long treasured Pamela Z’s work for its vigor, inexhaustible ideas, fluid intricacy of texture, and for its sheer joyousness. An infectious, often surreal humor runs through the whole album, brilliantly upending everyday experience. The letter she is typing disintegrates, flare stains on a road become animate, and in Unknown Person even the TSA’s mundane but weighted questions are subverted, and disintegrate in the hilarious list of packed garments and hopes which follows. Voice, the most intimate of instruments, is a shape-shifter in her hands, transformed by gestural control and electronics in her performances and mutating, time-stretched and compressed as Timepiece Triptych, and throughout her work, with a dazzling compositional virtuosity.”
Including works made for dance, for Kronos Quartet, as well as for Z’s own live-sampled concert performance with bel canto, bubblewrap, and tuning fork options, A Secret Code is not as esoteric as it may sound. Besides, as the ever-philosophical TSA so often asks, “What is the purpose of your travel?”
San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real time to create dense, complex sonic layers. Her solo works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and wireless MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures.
credits
released May 5, 2021
Mastered by Erdem Helvacioglu
Liner notes by Annea Lockwood
Produced and recorded by Pamela Z
Philip Blackburn, design
San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z works primarily with voice, live electronic processing,
sampled sound, and video. Her solo works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and wireless MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures.
An instant classic! The moment I put this music into my headphones, I knew this was something special. After that, I just had to dig into Pharoah Sanders discogrpahy. Sanders was already a giant of Jazz. But this last release, 18 months before his death can just elevate his reputation even higher. Rest in peace Pharoah! Alex Deschênes
Some of the most interesting hiphop I've had to hear in years. In takes in all fields of music to create something rather unique. The mood of it is rather grim but not without hope. I'd recommend to listen to it fully in one go to get the best of it. Thibaut Devigne
With only processed, layered vocals and one moody, swirling synthesizer, AnnaOtta and La.Fumero build a gorgeous and unique world together. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 27, 2023
The artist's latest masterwork of ambient, drone, and opera explores the effect of time and iteration on memory, emotion, and meaning. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jan 25, 2022