MICHAEL VETTER
Michael Vetter was born in 1943 in Oberstdorf Allgäu. He studied theology and between 1970 and 1982 spent most of his time in Japan as a Zen monk.
A self taught musician and painter he became known as a performer and composer of experimental music for recorder.
He was discovered by Karlheinz Stockausen in 1969 and was invited to participate in his then current "intuitive music".
Although Vetter dedicated himself in the 1970s to a systemmatic framework of musical concepts he was increasingly engaged in developing the expressive possibilities of the voice.
In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry Michael Vetter has held a month-long course on OM; in Bremen cathedral as well as many other European churches he has sung his "Overtone Oratorio."
In the same period he recited and played in Paris, Basel, Vienna, Tokyo and elsewhere his provocative "Spoken Music".
Though the tambura for centuries has served as an accompanying instrument in Indian classical music Vetter has been able to reveal astonishing soloistic dimensions in the instrument which he has presented in evening long compositions which where offered for discussion at the international Music Encounter in Bombay in January 1983.
Alongside the musitiun Vetter's concept of "trans verbal language" stands the painter Vetter's "trans-verbal writing".
His cordless, novel Hand Gestures appeared in 1973 which deals in port with the transforming and communicating ability of individual and ethnic writing forms.
The International Calligraphy Society in Tokyo awarded him the title of Consulting Member for his "Structural Writing" which he created an thousands of pages using a Japanese inkbrush. Since April 1983 Michael Vetter has been living again in Germany near Freiburg in Breisgau in the Black Forest where he gives instruction in musical perception through courses and concerts.
The main focus of his seminars is to teach the art of overtone singing to an ever growing group of those interested.
Michael Vetter, Overtone Choir
ARNR 0192
Format: Digipack with 12-page booklet
Click here for MP3
This recording features harmonic singing, a vocal technique which allows the performer to sing two or more melodic lines simultaneously.
Recorded at the famous Cistercian abbey in Senanque, France, the enigmatic voices of The Overtone Choir directed by Michael Vetter, one of the very few contemporary Masters of this transcendental vocal technique, create beautiful vocal textures.
These unique harmonic sounds demonstrate that man can be the complete and ultimate musical instrument, and offer a completely new way of approaching music.
TRACKLISTING:
Deep Within (10:36)
Breathing Wind (5:54)
Opening (18:40)
Luminous (3:31)
Ancient Voices (11:36)