BRIClab: Samita Sinha CIPHER (Work in Progress)

Cipher is a genre-bending music work for solo voice and electronics and a journey through a disorienting and visionary sonic landscape. Rooted in the Hindustani classical vocal music tradition called “raga,” and drawing on a contemporary vocabulary, folk and ritual music, jazz and blues, and songs and texts in multiple languages, Cipher channels past and present through the singing body.

Utilizing her practice of “body-sound"—a way of singing that unites voice, physical gesture, language and space into potent articulations from raw utterance to speech to song—vocalist and composer Samita Sinha asks the question: is it possible to create a "native” tongue, a contemporary pidgin that gathers and refracts multiple languages, worldviews and temporalities?

BRIClab marks the first time all of Sinha’s collaborators—including producer and percussionist Dave Sharma, lighting designer Chris Kuhl, and sculptor Dani Leventhal—will come together in one space as they prepare for a fall 2014 premiere. Sharings will include performances and delve into the process of creating and experience of witnessing the work.

“Hot… Sinha [has] a bare and exacting voice.” – Brooklyn Rail