Blogscapes

For the past 25 years, I've told voice talent that speech is simply music without measures. For many of them, this lights up a few new synapses, and makes talent direction easier for everyone.

Now, a guy named Charles Spearin--a horn player from Broken Social Scene--has put together an album in which he composes music around the inflections and cadences of interviews he did with neighbors of his in Toronto. The album is called "The Happiness Project." I downloaded it last night and listened twice. It's a remarkable piece of conceptual art.

Here's an excerpt from Vanessa. It's the story, in her own words, of being born deaf, then having cochlear implants. He takes her phrase "...all of a sudden I felt my body moving with sound" and makes music from it.

If you're a fan of the kaleidoscopic beauty of the human voice as well as the human spirit, you'll enjoy this album. Check out all of the cuts here.

--Brent Walker