Many times I have asked myself: did early humans sing before they could speak?

How did singing emerge as they were thriving, surviving in Earth’s challenging environment? How was the birth of music and collective song? Was it an accident? A consequence of evolution? A gift from a larger intelligence?

So if there was a moment when one, or maybe a number of these early humans began to make sounds, to explore combining them into song, how was the first time when another human was touched by that song? 

And how was it when they joined together first and heard their own sound as a community, began to discover their commonalities and differences, to share, to communicate and learn from each other and to meet in music? When did a song conceived by someone become part of the identity of the tribe?

These and many more questions can only be responded with hypothesis, theories, imagining… but my body tells me a different story and I choose to listen. My cells feel this connection and they know that it’s irrelevant to understand, to have the exact details, to explain. It is unnecessary and even silly to try to capture and imprison such a moment of magic.

Anthropos: Songs of Humanity is not anthropological research. It’s a celebration of that magic that descended upon those first humans and inspired them to know themselves as musical beings, to explore and share the depth and beauty of breath transformed into collective sound. To use their own voices and bodies to express, connect, encourage, soothe, enliven, accompany, rejoice, mourn, invoke... 

I feel joy and gratitude in remembering that the human voice and inherent musicality, as they manifest in us, are a gift and a blessing unique to our species in this planet. One that had and still has consequence in the vibrant health and survival of the human body and the fabric of humanity. 

This feels very relevant for me now, many thousands of years after those beginnings, when perhaps more than ever, my body speaks of a longing to return to the essential, to the bare bones of what it means to be a part of humanity and alive on Earth.

More about Anthropos: Songs of Humanity:
An ensemble of five singers from diverse backgrounds come together to reimagine some of the sounds and songs early humans might have created and shared together. We could call the artform ‘a cappella collaborative vocal improvisation’ 

Anthropos is made of a succession of short spontaneous vocal pieces: The ‘songs’. Using invented language and a very broad spectrum of vocal techniques and musical influences from across the planet, we aim to recreate how humans might have made music as part of the fabric of their ordinary life and rituals, before music and singing became cultural commodities. 

Each ‘song’ is a sound and movement vignette, creating different configurations in space and sound. The shapes are universal, archetypal. We sing aspects of the natural world, the elements, songs of work, dignity, protection, mourning, celebration, healing, lullaby and prayer.  

We are:  

Kate Smith,  Sylvia Schmidt, Jaka Skapin,  Nell Greco,  Guillermo Rozenthuler (concept- direction).

Why now?

This theme has been in my consciousness for decades and is always present in my teaching of vocal improvisation. With lockdown, I’ve found the space and time to reflect, shape and find the collaborators to bring it to life. We’ve been working online and in person for the past two years, we’ve recorded a studio EP and released videos of live performances.

People have been physically and psychologically isolated since the onset of the pandemic, my feeling is that sharing a project that involves ‘in the moment’ creativity and risk from a group of artists coming together is a very strong statement about the potential and human qualities that might be unexpressed and un-lived during the pandemic, but can never be lost. 

Anthropos is meant to remind audience members of their primordial connection with music and singing and the natural world as a basis for community and feeling included in something much larger than ourselves. The performance will be immersive and participatory at times. In our current culture, there is a massive separation between ‘the artist’ and ‘the audience’. The project aims to bridge that large gap through our music as an invitation to feel more deeply into what it means to be human and to have a voice.