In a recent extended-form concert work, Perukua’s biofield was captured in real time by specialised equipment positioned on stage and projected as live visual material above the performer, while three-dimensional spatial-audio systems carried her polyphonic vocal output into the room. Her voice, layered into as many as four simultaneous tones during the performance, dissolved the conventional barrier between stage and audience. Listeners reported entering an extended state of inward attention. A new memoir from the artist arrives this season.

Australian-born polyphonic vocalist and composer Perukua has, in recent live work, presented one of the more technically ambitious extended-form concert pieces currently being performed in the field of vocal sound-art. The work integrates three concurrent layers — a live polyphonic vocal performance, a real-time biofield-imaging stream captured from the performer’s body and projected as visual material above the stage, and a three-dimensional spatial-audio system that carries the vocal output through additional speaker arrays positioned around the audience.

The biofield as a second performer

Specialised biofield-imaging equipment positioned on the stage captures the performer’s field in real time. The captured signal is processed and combined with prepared visual material, then projected behind and above the performer for the duration of the work. The visual stream is not pre-recorded. It moves with the singer.
“The performer’s biofield becomes a second performer on the stage — visual, present, and changing in real time with the voice.”

The audio component of the work uses additional spatial-audio loudspeakers placed throughout the hall, producing the kind of three-dimensional sonic immersion familiar from contemporary cinema rather than from traditional concert presentation. Together, the biofield projection and the spatial audio dissolve the conventional separation between stage and audience seating.

Up to four simultaneous tones

Perukua’s vocal output, when measured in studio sessions, runs across a frequency range from 50 Hz to 11,812 Hz — close to the practical bandwidth of human hearing. During the technology-integrated performance, her voice is observed to layer into as many as four simultaneous tones at peak passages of the work — polyphonic overtone work at a density rarely produced live by a single performer.

“A voice that, at the height of the work, layers into four simultaneous tones — polyphonic overtone work at a density rarely produced live by a single performer.”
Audience reports describe an extended state of inward attention while the work is in progress. Listeners describe what they have variously called a kind of mystical trip — a sustained interior journey running in parallel with the unfolding stage and audio image of the artist herself. The conventional barrier between performer and audience, in their accounts, gives way.

“A sustained interior journey running in parallel with the unfolding stage and audio image of the artist herself.”

The artist and the publication

Perukua has performed across more than twenty countries over thirty-five years, in halls of up to twenty-one thousand. Her own concert work, Voice and Cosmos, presented in 2017 to an audience of six thousand, marked the first public performance of the polyphonic voice she had developed privately for the previous two decades. She is regarded by colleagues in the extended-form vocal community as one of the more pioneering practitioners working at the intersection of polyphonic technique, spatial sound, and real-time visual integration.

This season, alongside the continued touring of the technology-integrated work, Perukua releases her debut memoir, The Woman Who Found Her Voice, accompanied by an original 11-song soundtrack mapping song-by-song onto the book’s eleven narrative units. The recording features collaborations with three-time GRAMMY® winner Tom Wasinger, multi-platinum producer Heather Holley (Christina Aguilera, Skylar Grey, Jackie Evancho), and four-time Grammy-nominated cellist Dave Eggar (Coldplay, Evanescence, Taylor Swift, Beyonce).

“Pioneering work at the intersection of polyphonic technique, spatial sound, and real-time visual integration.”

Perukua’s memoir, The Woman Who Found Her Voice, has an unusual layered structure revealing life’s understanding causality. It serves as a mirror into a readers own journey. To bring the thrilling story to life it comes with 11-song companion soundtrack. The book is expected to be released this season. More on the artist’s extended-form concert work and current dates is at peruquois.com.