Antonina Nowacka is a vocalist, sound artist and composer with a background in visual arts. Through years of sonic exploration in natural environments, studies of various music traditions and vocal idiosyncrasies, she has developed a unique, deeply relaxing and hypnotic voice quality reminiscent of a theremin. She creates subtle and minimalist soundscapes that take the listener on imaginative journeys inspired by nature, space, dreams and otherworldly happenings. Her latest album, Sylphine Soporifera, is out now.
“Hers is a new New Age sound world that finds its origins everywhere and nowhere.” Is a quote that is on the liner notes of your latest album, Sylphine Soporifera. Are location and environment – whether existing or missing – important factors of your work?
Yes, definitely. I get very inspired by the environment, aesthetically and in terms of acoustics. The spaces where I am able to give voice can literally take a leading role in the creative process – like when I was making recordings in Indonesian caves, which resulted in my album Lamunan, or the churches of Oaxaca state in Mexico. It was just the resonance and the voice, so simple, and the sound of the spaces made it magic.
For this new album, I wanted to create a kind of imaginary landscape with a very strong relation to the element of air, as it was inspired by my experiences in the deserts. I always seek locations that generate a feeling of awe in me, and I love to feel the excitement of being in a beautiful place, the more unreal the better. It’s truly fascinating, because some of the locations that have inspired me the most are very, very old, like caves, for example. These incredible shapes take millions of years to form. It’s mind-blowing. This relationship with time makes it feel so surreal and mysterious. Needless to say, I also love to perform in spaces like gardens, old churches, monasteries, museums and palaces.
Can you talk about how your musical path developed? Your sonic practices and crafting your sound world/s? And what is your relationship to your voice as an instrument?
I have gone through a lot of stages in my practice, though once I started composing with a voice, my interest was directed towards the possibilities of this medium. I enjoyed exploring it in many different ways until I found the most appealing one. I prefer easy solutions and I am also a minimalist, so it felt very natural to get into the instrument that is built in my own body. And coming from a visual arts background, my approach to sound and to voice is very imaginative, which means that composing for me seems more like sculpting or painting, and I imagine sound as a kind of fluid form in the abyss. Literally waves. And I love this material because it’s as light as the air! Right now, the interesting thing for me is to find the voice that is most relaxing and comforting to me and to the listener. I’m discovering that it happens under certain circumstances, for example, when I’m in particular places with beautiful acoustics, scents and atmospheres, I simply imagine the melodies in my head and they appear in the air in front of me, and I don’t even feel that I’m doing anything. It makes me very excited because the process is truly magical.
You have travelled extensively and lived in various countries, from Indonesia to Mexico and now Italy. What is your relationship with these different geographies and their musical traditions? How do they influence you?
Travels feed my curiosity and I love to explore. In addition to the landscapes and peculiar locations, I also investigate and research the music and audio spheres of the local cultures, especially traditional music, because of the use of peculiar instrumentation and scales. In the distant past, artists had only these simple tools with which to create, and I love simple instruments played with virtuosity. In many places I travel to, these traditions are still very much alive, for example, in Indonesia and India, where I have studied the most intensively. When I first heard my teacher, Shashwati Mandal, sing live, my jaw dropped, it was so crazy and beautiful at the same time. I had the privilege to participate in private concerts and sessions at my teacher’s home and I got to hear and meet some absolutely outstanding instrumentalists. In Java, where I lived and studied, I got to sing with a young gamelan group at local weddings. These experiences change the way I perceive music and sound, and also change the way I sing as I incorporate some elements of these traditions into my own way of giving voice. I just navigate towards things that intuitively feel right to me in terms of aesthetics and a kind of, let’s name it, spiritual fulfilment.
There is this liquid, aquatic feel to your latest album. How important is water as a symbol of life and rebirth for you – also sonically and conceptually?
That’s very interesting; I feel it might be related to how I perceive sound as fluid matter that I can shape like a sculpture. Water is a truly beautiful material; it can take all sorts of crazy shapes but it’s still impossible to grasp. In that sense, it never really disappears, it just changes its form, it can be enormous and really powerful, but it can also be so small that we cannot even perceive it. I love the feeling of being in warm water, especially just floating on the surface and listening. Some of the most stunning landscapes I’ve encountered are in the Paracas National Park in Peru, where the desert intersects with the ocean. These two entities create a sense of something incredibly vast and give me a sense of hope.
What awaits you next?
Hopefully more inspiring places! I have live performances scheduled around some beautiful locations this fall, for which I’m very grateful and happy. Later in the winter season, I plan to travel further for new sound experiences. I’m also preparing a composition for the Longform Editions, which I’m recording in a very special place near where I live in Italy, and next year, beloved collaborator Sofie Birch and I are releasing a new album on Unsound Productions.
Interview by Lucia Udvardyova
Photo Riccardo Caspani