Listen & tracks

1 of 19 tracks have a preview · 8 works · 68:15

1 Mirror of the Sky / Sea Dean Frenkel (Originally: Bathing in Stillness) 6:07
2 Summer Waves Dean Frenkel (Originally: Summer Etude) 10:32
3 New Year's Dawn Dean Frenkel (Originally: Sweet Light of Day) 7:16
4 90 Mile Dream Dean Frenkel (Originally: Odyssey for a Lone Bassoon) 6:44
5 Symphony of the Earth Dean Frenkel (Originally: Gratitude) 10:57
6 Walking on a Sea of Moonstone Dean Frenkel (Originally: The Travelling Dimension) 9:13
7 Wishmaker Dean Frenkel (Originally: Between Home and Heaven) 10:23
8 The Wisdom of Bones Dean Frenkel (Originally: Nature) 7:03

Frenkel treats the voice as an instrument, laying overtones across gamelan, shakuhachi, bassoon, marimba, vibraphone, harp and saxophone so that each source piece gains a second, floating line.

A bonus film shows him demonstrating vocal harmonics live with Tom Lewis on didjeridu, Christopher Young on clarinet and Linda Laasi on vocals.

In the artist’s words

This project arose from an original concept to record an ambient/world music album with strategic placements of harmonic vocals over and within a selection of outstanding compositions and recordings by Australian music artists. I anticipated that the musical compositions would add complexity to the sound of harmonics, while the harmonics would simultaneously contribute a unique and evocative sound to the music. My confidence in this concept came from myriad experiences of combining vocal harmonics with many instruments and music types. For me, Ambient Voice is more than an autobiographical journey of sound, it is a connection of pre-industrial with contemporary music with an added multicultural context.

— Dean Frenkel

Reviews

it is Frenkel's haunting, otherworldly vocals that will lull you into a state of meditation, sleep or blissful calm. At last, something of merit in the New Age section. ★★★★

— Stephen McKenzie, Melbourne Weekly

isn't it amazing what people can do with their voices ... amazing sounds ... a euphoric soundscape.

— Philip Adams, ABC Radio National

get outta here!

— Afternoon Show with Mel and Charlie, Triple J

a very special talent

— Andrew Denton, Enough Rope

it's wonderful. I don't understand it [but] it's wonderful.

— Glenn Winslade, Opera Australia

a symphony of sound

— Harb Gill, Herald Sun

extraordinary vocal work ... a very powerful effect ... amazing stuff

— Peter Clarke, 774 ABC Melbourne

[Frenkel's voice] sounds like a hammond organ!

— Jon Faine, 774 ABC Melbourne

It's fantastic

— Michelle Nicole, jazz vocalist

magically ambient

— Stonnington Leader

The music just washes over you.

— Derek Guille, 774 ABC Melbourne

Artists

Dean Frenkel

vocal harmonics

Dean Frenkel combines ancient Tibetan throat-singing technique with modern composition, creating a distinctive hybrid form. He used that technique to set a world record for the longest continuous vocal note.

George Dreyfus

composer

One of Australia's best-known composers, especially for the theme from the television series Rush, George Dreyfus was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at Victorian Parliament House for services to music.

Mark Pollard

composer

Australian composer Mark Clement Pollard has an eclectic style that draws on improvisation, jazz, pop, minimalism and the indigenous musics of South-East Asia.

Kate Adam

composer

Kate Adam is a marimbist and composer. Her marimba writing appears on Australian ambient and contemporary recordings.

Andrew MacGregor

composer

Andrew MacGregor is an Australian composer and shakuhachi player.

Ariel Valent

composer

Ariel Valent’s vibraphone colours ambient soundscapes and baroque-jazz crossovers alike, whether co-writing Invention in Time pieces that drift like tide and light or locking into a rhythm section under Elizabeth Anderson’s harpsichord.