On the Root Strata tip, I went to the first of the three concerts mentioned above — my write-up here: http://is.gd/4TIKt — and three of the acts that day used vocals, two electronically futzed-with, and one a glossolalia mixed in with the instrumental noise. It was a definite theme to the show.

I’m ultimately with Alan on the overall vocals subject — I was a child of rock’n'roll, originally heavily into vocals, but as the years have passed they’ve gone from neutral to active disinterest. A transition for me was vocal work that, unlike Foxx’s ultimately hearty and self-conscious efforts on Mirrorball, aspire to something ethereal, from early church music (Byrd, Palestrina) to more recent choral work (Arvo Pärt, John Tavener). Gavin Bryars’s first version of Jesus’s Blood is another important-to-me example of successful use of voice as a textural/instrumental element even when it retains verbal content (the original version, not the Tom Waits); ditto the oft-cited “Sitting in a Room” by Alvin Lucier.

No takers for Sidsel? Then a mostly tongue in cheek coda – perhaps Foxx should work with extracts from ‘The Grain of the Voice’ for his next piece – possibly backed by representatives of Alan’s “5-volume axe-fest”?

As for those Root Strata gigs, Joshua, I’m envious – though I’m not enamoured of the gruzzier end of things represented by Barn Owl, I can imagine they psyched up a dronebuzzstorm live. And I’m afraid I seem to be one of the few who have not ‘got’ Grouper – maybe it’s the vocals, maybe not, but I don’t ‘hear’ what others seem to have heard; then again I was never a lover of local (non-)heroes, Flying Saucer Attack, who wrote the blueprint for this kind of lo-fi bleary will-this-do-vocal + post-Popol Vuh strum-blur guitar-fog balladry. I’m thinking more of the the likes of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – whose best album, incidentally, “Garden of Forking Paths” was on Spekk, rather than his own label, Root Strata – and Taiga Remains – whose best release, incidentally, “Ribbons of Dust” – originally 3 individual sold out 3” cd-rs on *his* own Students of Decay lebal – was reissued bundled together as a full-length on… yep, Root Strata. Anyway, did either of ‘em play?

As for the thread on vocals, it’s best I just nod in recognition at Marc’s and Joshua’s on-the-mark reflections/observations, and stay on the sidelines, as it’s really not, nor ever has been, anywhere near My Thing to pursue an inquiry on the voice in – ambient or otherwise – music. I would only point to Roland Barthes’ seminal exploratory essay on The Grain of the Voice http://www.gregsandow.com/BookBlog/grain_of_the_voice.pdf, and retreat, hoping, once again, that this blur of verbiage and riot of reference might distract from my unconscionable failure to directly address the topic of “Mirrorball” (y’know, that thing up there {gestures up top} we were s’posed to be {ahem} discussing ;-))

It’s probably to labour the point. But even with their lineage the Foxx/Guthrie of ‘Mirrorball’ could learn a thing or two from his Doubled Up Foldable Iona Rarity (whatever that is!) version – how to sustain impact across a long ambient group piece composed from fairly simple elements & one dominant ‘voice’, in particular…

Otherwise, can only take my hat off to Alan’s oh-so-casual “5-volume axe-fest” (!), add Christopher Willits to my way shorter ambient-shoegaze-drone panoply (it’ll be lengthened by those 5 vols, no doubt…), & thank Joshua for the very welcome inspiration to dig out ‘Evening Star’.

As for Marc’s very worthwhile question about voices in the kinds of ambientronica we’re generally discussing here, the Punkt stuff from Norway comes to mind. I don’t know it so well, but Sidsel Endresen & her co-conspirators seem to be getting somewhere with treating her voice as another instrument subject to their live remixing (though she does also offer some Bjork-ish wailing that seems as hyper self-conscious in its way as Foxx).

What Mirrorball has confirmed for me is that, personally, as a listener, the voice is sort of where the guitar was a decade ago or so ago — it’s an ingredient so prominent in music, pop and otherwise, that I’m eagerly awaiting some sea change. Wishful thinking, yes.

With the guitar, it was kind of a three-step process: a substantial percentage of electronic music ignored the guitar entirely, then work like Fennesz’s assisted in re-introducing the guitar in a heavily modified form, and then as comfort with its recontextualization occurred the guitar became even more prominent/recognizable.

There are musicians who mess with their voices, and what makes Foxx stand out so much on Mirrorball is that for all Guthrie’s artfully murky production efforts, Foxx remains almost sacrosanct.

It’s the same sort of disappointment I had with recent David Sylvian albums — the vocal remains, by and large, apart from the rest of the music. In the end, the result is background plus foreground, a very traditional mindset with lovely window-dressing.

Anyway having spent a couple of years engaged on this on-off archaeology-cum-ethnography of what might be characterised as guitar-driven ambient-ish, shoegaze-y and drone-inclined music, I decided to put together some sort of audio-document to represent my trawl through the annals of the wielders of the stretched-out steel-stringed thing. It ended up in a marathon 5-volume compendium (like a kind of ambient-shoegaze-drone version of a DJ mix!) that I made available for download or for streaming from players on a blog-type thing of mine.

So, anyway, I realise this 5-volume axe-fest might be too rich for some people’s blood, but I hope (some of) you might be inclined to enjoy (some of) it. It’s here:

http://albient.livejournal.com/2468.html

In further defence of the pertinence of all this to the discussion, I might offer in mitigation that a Robin Guthrie collab (with Harold Budd) is represented here.

For the record, artists include:

A Lily, Aarktica, Adam Pacione, Aidan Baker, Andrew Chalk, Apalusa, Area C, Belong, Ben-Fleury Steiner, Brian Grainger, Brian Lavelle, Byla, Christopher Willits, David Tagg, David Tollefson, Devin Sarno & GE Stinson, Eluvium, Exuviae, Fabio Orsi, Fennesz, Fripp/Eno, Frost, Gareth Hardwick, Giuseppe Ielasi, Hakobune, Hammock, Igneous Flame, Jason Sloan, Jasper TX, Jeff Pearce, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Kiln, Koda, Labradford, lovesliescrushing, Machinefabriek, Main, Manual, Markus Reuter, Matt Borghi, Meursault, Mike van Portfleet, Monostation, mwvm, Neon, Opn, Our Sleepless Forest, Paul Bradley, Peter Wright, Rafael Toral, Rain-cloud, Rameses III, Remco Helbers, Rim, Robin Guthrie, Roy Montgomery, Scott Cortez, Scott Solter, Seconds in Formaldehyde, Seefeel, Shirk, Sleep Robot, Slow Dancing Society, Solyaris, Stars of the Lid, Sundummy, Suso Saiz, Taiga Remains, talkingmakesnosense, The Azusa Plane, thisquietarmy, Troum, True Colour of Blood, Ultra Milkmaids, Wereju, White Rainbow, Windy & Carl, Zac Keiller.