River Song - Vocal Landscapes and the Poetics of Water

In the "River Song" interdisciplinary workshop, participants explore vocal performance practices and listening, blending human and non-human voices inspired by the sound of the river.

River Song is an interdisciplinary workshop exploring the relationship between voice, soundscapes and ecological memory. Drawing inspiration from the sounds of water and the metaphorical dimension of the river, the workshop invites participants to use the voice as a means of creative expression. Both ephemeral and deeply embodied, the voice can be transformed by using extended vocal techniques.

Through activities such as listening exercises, vocal improvisation, mimetic singing, gestural expression, writing, field recording and the creation of drawings, participants will observe how the voice can blend with the surroundings.

The workshop includes a walk along the Havel River in Berlin, where participants will take inspiration from its landscape.

At a time when the question of ‘Enough' – enough water? enough time to listening? – is increasingly urgent, the workshop invites participants to reflect on the current environmental crisis and the idea of ecological memory: for example, a river carries the memory of floods and droughts in its rocks, sounds and stories. The voice merges with the landscape, becoming the river, an echo, a gesture and a memory. The river - real or imagined - resonates in the shared space. By exploring human and non-human voices, participants will form a choir that flows like a river: silent, loud, noisy, still and moving. In this process, they will develop new narratives of nature-human coexistence.

The workshop will culminate in a group performance presented to a wider audience.

Schedule

Over four days (10:00–17:00 with lunch break) the programme alternates between individual and group exercises, and moments of reflection.

Activities include:

• Breathing and listening exercises to help participants tune into their own voices and the surroundings
• Experimenting with extended vocal techniques, such as guttural sounds, noise, harmonics, distortion, resonance and mimetic singing
• Improvisation and composition exercises combining voice, body, sound, drawing and writing
• A walk alongside the Havel River, encouraging participants to observe and immerse themselves in the natural rhythms of the river and its landscape.
• Recording environmental and vocal sounds
• Creation of graphic scores and abstract drawings based on vocal sounds and movement, inspired by the sound and visual qualities of the river, its energy and its interactions with the city (e.g. people, birds, insects, bridges, and architecture).
• Collective composition and final public performance.

Knowledge requirements

The workshop is open to anyone with a strong interest and experience in voice, sound art, music, performing arts, visual arts and text. It is not necessary to be a professional singer to participate in the workshop.

Equipment requirements

Participants are encouraged to bring various sizes of paper, pencils, a sketchbook and audio recording devices (e.g. digital recorder, tape recorder, smartphone, etc.). Some equipment will be provided by the University.

Alessandra Eramo is a sound artist, vocalist, performer and composer based in Berlin. Her artistic practice spans performance, installation, sound poetry, video, and drawing, exploring the latent acoustic territories of the voice and noise as a socio-political matter. Through live performances and interdisciplinary artistic projects, she investigates themes related to the body, memory, migration, and identity, often employing participatory actions and experimental approaches to composition. Trained in classical singing, piano, and music theory, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Brera in Milan and in Stuttgart, earning Master's degree in Performance Studies from Ca' Foscari University in Venice. Alessandra Eramo has exhibited and performed at prestigious festivals, museums, art spaces and radio, including the Wuhan Art Biennale (2024-2025), the MaerzMusik Festival Berlin (2024), the Lisboa Soa Festival (2023), Heroines of Sound Festival Berlin (2022), the Italian Culture Institute Brussels/Kira A. Princess of Prussia Foundation (2021), Deutschlandfunk Kultur Klangkunst. Co-founder of Corvo Records - vinyl & sound art production -, she is actively involved in the artistic community of Berlin as a member of Errant Sound and serves as a lecturer in the Master in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the University of the Arts Berlin

 www.ezramo.com