Traditional Albanian singing sounds like a goats’ choir interrupted by the solos of tawny owls. The rhythm of Mongolian songs resembles the beat of horses, and Bulgarian singers have so-called “bells in the voice,” similar to the ones hanging on the necks of the sheep grazing in the vast pastures. One of the techniques musicians use when learning a song is vocal listening: They position their speech apparatus, imagining melodies or listening to them as if they were singing them. The embodiment of sounds is the primal impulse of music-making. We’ll keep looking until we have found the source of organic music. 

Aleksandra Kowalczyk