Posted by Fabio 31 October 2019
NYX’s debut single ‘Void’ out now on their new imprint NYX Collective Records. Music video directed by Dan Tobin Smith.
NYX is a collaborative drone choir and otherworldly electric chorus, re-embodying live electronics and extended vocal techniques. With visceral arrangements and original compositions by choir leader Sian O’Gorman, NYX looks to reshape the role of the traditional female choir, testing the limits of organic and synthetic modulation to explore the entire spectrum of collective female voice as an instrument. Alongside solo projects, NYX is a collaborative force, recently developing special projects with multidisciplinary artists such as Gazelle Twin, Christina Vantzou, Dan Tobin Smith, Sigur Ros, Hatis Noit, Iona Fortune and Alicia Jane Turner with Dead Light under the creative direction of Sian O’Gorman, Philippa Neels and Joshua Thomas.
VOID was created for a multi-sensory installation by the same name, VOID, with visual artist Dan Tobin Smith (Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton) and The Experience Machine (Beyonce, James Blake) for London Design Festival in September 2019. Performed as a live electronic meditation between large scale projections and light refraction, VOID embodied expanded space and imperfections inside gemstones. Challenging ancient, ecstatic and elemental energy of gemstones, NYX’s sonic immersion commands the power and magic of collective female voice and electronics to move through symbiosis in nature.
NYX’s approach to post-digital performance and composition is influenced Meredith Monk’s extended vocal technique, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares’ charged harmonics, the electronic and acoustic body manipulations of Holly Herndon, the viscerality of Sunn 0)))’s ecstatic noise experiences and participatory community music projects like Peter Broderick’s The Beacon Sound Choir. Alongside performances, the collective continues to research health and social benefits of sonic immersion in relation to ethnomusicology, sound therapy, collaboration, feminism and new digital technologies.