Growl!
Åke Parmerud, Axel Widén
Programme notes
Metal music is big in Sweden. Since my youngest son is playing in a band, I could not avoid the tradition even if I wanted to. Instead I got fascinated by the vocal technique used by the so-called “screamers” or “growlers,” which is a kind of natural vocal distortion that gives the impression that the singer is ripping apart his vocal cords.
I suddenly had the urge to make a piece for a “growlers choir,” something I’ve never heard (and few others have). My son managed to get me four of the best growlers from my hometown to line up for a recording session. I also asked one of them to write some appropriately dystopic lyrics.
Metal aficionados always claim the importance of lyrics although it is most of the time impossible to understand any of the words. This is also true for Growl
Growl
[iv-15]
Growl
Premiere
- September 27, 2014, Noises of the future and the past, Jardín sonoro — Fonoteca Nacional de México, Mexico City (Mexico)
- Writer(s): Axel Widén
- Composer(s): Åke Parmerud
- Year of composition: 2014, 15
- Duration: 12:43
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: Musiques & Recherches
- ISRC: CAD501510007
