Discovering a Personal Sonic Identity through Collaborative Intercultural Music Making

Chrysoula Panagiotopoulou, Global music bachelor project

Prologue

Identities are dynamic constants which extend a person's entity; they are formed by experiences and consecutively reflect on that person’s music. It is something recognisable; an artist’s fingerprint. How is the musical identity of an artist influenced and shaped by the impulses of their collaborators? How can a band work collectively in a creative and productive way, while still remaining true to the vision and identity of the artist leading the band? Εxperiences and human interaction become the medium for externalizing the musician’s individual voice. Music making in multicultural circles can create an opportunity for sharing, exchanging and blending. Over time, this process may lead towards creating a sense of transculturality, moving beyond cultural reference points to a place of shared values, ownership and a unique group identity.

This exposition is an attempt to gain deeper understanding of the factors contributing to the formation of an artist's sonic identity by unfolding the process of music making with a band made up of musicians from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds. 

The goal is to allow the interdependent elements of the collaboration to come forth, such as the relationship of the artists, their aesthetics, the composer's vision, and reveal how those elements reflect from the process to the artist’s identity and from the artist’s identity to the music. For that purpose, examples of working with the band on original compositions are displayed here, making the characteristics of the collaboration more tangible to the reader. 

The cases used are fragments of the work done within the framework of the author's bachelor concert for the Global Music Programme of the Sibelius Academy. The process of working on the material, with all four members of the band, lasted about nine months and the concert took place in Helsinki, in May 2019.

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Globalization amplified artists mobility and also led to growth of the music industry impacting the way music is distributed. Unlimited access to music and places, consequently enables artists to detach from the country of origin and its traditional music, explore and relocate. The more cultures a musician is exposed to, the more difficult it becomes to promote the music based on an identity label.

Artist from different backgrounds work together, familiarise themselves with different notation, form multi-cultural bands. Short documentaries like "YOLDA, A Story of Music, Migration and Mobility" [1,C] and "We are together - Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble" [2,C] open a window to intercultural music making. They point out the universal character of music and how much musicians are affected by working with people from other countries. 

Responding to new needs arising from globalization in the field of music the Global Music Programme, University of the Arts, Helsinki, aims to bring together musicians from a diverse range of musical and cultural backgrounds. The programme embraces cultural diversity and aims to educate innovative transcultural musicians and pedagogues with a strong sense of global responsibility.     

In other words, the formation of a multicultural community takes place inside the programme with the common denominator of music-making. The coexistence of individuals with strong and diverse cultures is inviting the members to develop consciousness, empathy, support and to expand and project those qualities to the modern society and life beyond music.

Musically, the presence of diverse cultural elements creates tensions similar to the intermolecular forces. "Musicians worldwide commonly shape their identity and forms of musical expression through the lens of the environment they grow up in. Ideas about desirable sonic aesthetics vary drastically across musical traditions and cultures globally. Whilst one musician may strive for a sound that is clear, pure and unaltered, another may strive for a distorted, inharmonic sound, for example." [1,A]

While these sonic aesthetics are as strong as gravity in their environment of origin, the aesthetics may be posed for re-evaluation and may be combined in different ways in new environments. The constant exposure to new information and patterns subjects the musician to new knowledge, deeper understanding and obligatory openness. The re-evaluation of the norms lifts cultural barriers and becomes liberating, leading the way to free creation. 

Music making with a transcultural band

Music making with a transcultural ensemble entails the abolishment of imperatives as each individual’s input is required but not defined. It is a primal process which takes place through grasping the opportunity to act, learning by doing and engaging in collaboration with changing roles. There is flow of impulses and reactions, continuous alternation between the roles of the receiver and the transmitter,  friction. Through this process supreme qualities emerge, such as respect, admiration, trust, collective creating and balance is accomplished in an organic way where music takes shape and becomes instantly independent of its creator [2,A].

The flexibility of the rules and absence of standardized musical structures adds to the necessity of establishing a common vocabulary. Verbal articulation of the conception at hand may restrict imagination and creativity. Therefore, it may often be useful to utilise unspoken, tacit means such as body movement, oral imitation of a sound, pictures and emotions,  simultaneously leaving room for interpretation.  

These means create the vocabulary of the group of musicians working together, which with time develops into a language. The pace of rehearsing becomes faster and simultaneously more casual. More importantly, this acquired language becomes a powerful tool in the hands of the main composer, allowing for effective communication of the artistic view, purpose and vision of the composition. The leader/facilitator holds multiple roles, being at the same time an equal member of the band, leader of the rehearsals and facilitator of the compositional process,  providing the framework and vision for the artistic scenery. Working collectively on a core musical idea is very personal for the stakeholders, hence, each and every one of them ultimately holds ownership of the musical result. 

As being the subject, real time evaluation and reflection on the experience is impractical. Unfolding the process as a group opens a constructive dialogue and provides insights bringing to surface all the different layers of the collaboration that evolve in parallel with the music [3,A]. 

Global Music

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Video, 1: Documentary 'YOLDA, A story of Music, Migration and Mobility' - (Handelsbeurs Concerts, 2015)

Audio, 1: Jamming with Christopher Rodulfo and Repkat Parhat on a text written by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou after the wildfires of 2018 - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2018)

Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, singer

Repkat Parhat, guitarist

All you don't say

I know Chrysa wants her creations to be unpretentious, simple in a way. This song has simple chords, simple melody but there was nothing simple about it; it was actually very hard to play. There is one voice and one instrument. Everything is naked.

Chrysa succeeded right away in setting the atmosphere and transmitting the vibe of the song; things that cannot be added later in a recording, they have to be there from the beginning. It was in the melody, in the way she sang; She started singing and I was immediately in the song.

For me it is not about knowing the person you are working with. We happen to be close friends but while working, our relationship is different. If the music speaks to you, if you like it, it just happens naturally. I felt comfortable.

We are both people that will do our best to produce something that is as close to the creator's idea as possible. Chrysa finds a way to explain her ideas that makes it easy and comprehensive for you.

Very often we are impatient with our ideas. We want to hear it right away. There was no rush when working on this song. We were very serious with the flow of work, very concentrated. We listened a lot and worked really hard.

(Parhat, R., Interview 1.0, 2019)

When I first got the idea for ''All you don't say'', I had the melody and the lyrics. I made a reminder recording for myself using a guitar that later served as a demo recording, having no intention to use a guitar in the future for the instrumentation.

There was an opportunity for a small performance and I brought the song to two good friends of mine with whom I have worked on several projects in the global music programme, an accordionist and a percussionist. I used the demo to firstly introduce the song. Our meetings took place in a rehearsal room, every time for a couple of hours and our agenda was to prepare the set list. Since this song has a relatively easy structure, I remember we spent most of the time focusing on the accompaniment. The rythm is in 6/8, but when we played together it turned into a more waltz like feeling, or a more even-accented feeling than the flowing vibe I was hoping for. 

After the performance, I shared my thoughts with another another friend, guitarist Repkat Parhat. I told him that even though I have a good feeling for this song I am not pleased yet with the result. There was nothing wrong with the music, it was actually developing great, having all the elements there, but I couldn't express myself in it. I didn’t try to explain verbally what is it that I felt was drifting the song to a different direction. Instead I played the demo for him and his reaction was that these are two totally different songs. The musical elements used in that performance were not transferring the atmosphere of the demo song. We concluded the conversation by saying that maybe one day the two of us with work on it together. It was about 8 months later that we made an appointment to work on this song. 

We met in a space that has some recording equipment and had no time limitations. We didn’t use any references. I asked if he remembered the demo, he replied yes and I played 6-8 bars of the comping highlighting that the most important thing was to keep this feeling going. We started recording straight away before playing the song through even once and kept working on it for hours.

This song would have never been the same with another guitarist.

I am very grateful that we found such an amazing balance with Repkat and that he felt comfortable to add his own elements but in such a way that primarily served my vision for the song. We worked systematically having a sculpturing approach. As we played the song again and again, adding something new every time, building around the core idea, it started getting shape and meaning. It was after that when we started focusing on details, polishing it.

We are both people that do not rely on notation when it comes to playing and performing. There was a point though, where the foundation of the song was clearly formed, that we felt we need a map in order to start developing expression and dynamics.

Apart from the musical language that we have developed by working together in the past in several different settings, we also share a certain amount of trust and respect for each other. It was only after we played the song 7 or 8 times that Repkat asked me what the lyrics are about. 

On reflection, there is a long history that led to this moment of recording the song ''All You Don't Say''.

We used lots of body movement to indicate the dynamics of the song and the emotional character of each verse. We were standing opposite each other, so even without looking on purpose, one was in the sight of the other. I think having a visual contact helped a lot to stay connected, keep track of our breaths and synchronise at the pauses of the song, even if the gestures were small. 

We kept recording two or three takes non stop, without talking in between. This way, because we were developing but also shaping the song at the same time, we allowed each other to try out and also finalise the elements we were adding. Once we felt it had stabilised, we would take a breather to talk and give feedback to each other, making sure we were on the same path.

''Did you notice what I did this time during the second verse?'',''I feel like it could grow more there'' or ''Do you feel this pause needs to be longer?''

Being able to listen to the recording sped up the process. You become the listener. You are able to check how the flow, the dynamics, the frequencies and the lenght of the song feels. You reflect together and plan the next steps. Comments like ''I love the chord you use here because it highlights the lyrics in this spot'', act as guidance and validation and you are able to adjust your playing during the next take.  

The following case study offers insights into the key points of the collaboration between the guitarist and the singer of the band, based on the song titled 'All You Don't Say'. The text that follows is an account of the musicians reflecting on their own process, transferred here as a first-person-perspective, which is intended to allow the reader to gain insights into the musicicans own experiences.

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Video, 3: Standing across each other and having a visual contact helped to stay connected. Even small gestures helped to keep track of our breaths and to synchronize. - (Panagiotopoulou, C. Parhat, R. 2019)

Audio, 4: "All you don't say" recording with guitar and voice - (Panagiotopoulou, C., Rarhat, R. 2019)

Picture, 2: Notation used for the recording of "All you don't say" for guitar and voice - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2019)

Audio, 2: Demo recording of "All you don't say" with guitar and voice - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2018)

Audio, 3: Recording from rehearsal of "All you don't say" with accordion, percussion and voice - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2018)

Working with the band

For my bachelor concert I took the challenge of developing my own compositions because I felt that a concert that demonstrates the different aspects of my musical personality and the way I have developed through the studies, would be a good epilogue. Being among so many wonderful musicians, who represent different musical traditions of the world, helped me learn and unlearn musical skills and had a great impact on how I see music in general and myself in it. Now that the limits have expanded I wanted to mark where I stand and to identify myself in the process.

Everyone cannot do everything. There lies the beauty of collaboration; where ideas combine and manners complement each other. For example here is a song from a another project,  ‘the Dream’, composed by Repkat Parhat, the guitarist of the band. Most of the music was there when he asked me to put a melody. He has taken inspiration by his grandfather’s notebook of poems, which we used to add lyrics on the melody. Later on we added some lyrics in my own language also, continuing the story of the song.  I have enjoyed putting my own touch on other people’s compositions and I wanted to invite people to do the same for mine. The ‘Dream’ was an example of collaborative composing, sitting together in a room, giving and taking real time feedback, developing and rehearsing at the same time. There were also cases of co-composing where the two parties worked at different times and places, such as the song ‘If I’ll lose you’. The melody, the lyrics and the vision were the foundation for this song. A more electronic sound is what I saw fit and since Thanasis Gotsopoulos has been experimenting with that sound, I handed the song over to him. Still, another example of teamwork.

So every song had its own needs and its own way to be approached by the band. Staying in the same example of ‘If I’ll lose you’, the challenge was to find a way to play the song in a live setting with acoustic instruments. A detailed music sheet wouldn’t provide much information for this song. Instead, a picture could transfer the feeling and expression. We worked with customized notation in every song for every player, and I like to believe that this saved us time. There were songs though, like the ‘Bolero’, that traditional western notation was the right tool for rehearsing. There were also others, like ‘I am not the woman you fancy’ for which we didn’t use any form of notation.

Since composing often feels as exposing, trusting the musicians of the band and being familiar with their style of work was vital for the process. My choice of people was not based on personal relationships and friendship but mostly on the common ground and language that we have established by working on other projects. Simplifying the relations within the group, there were bonds of duos inside it. The drummer has been working closely with the guitarist, having developed good musical dialogues in the past. The bass player has been working with the drummer exploring rhythmic patterns. The singer, in this case me, has been performing with the bass player for a long time and we are familiar with each others musical aesthetics. Lastly, the guitarist and the singer have been creating new music together previously through contributing lyrics, riffs, or harmonies to each other's compositions. 

Even though these interelations existed, working as team of four demanded a new balance to be found. 

Every member of the band has come far since entering the Global Music Programme through exploring new ways of manifesting music, acquiring new skills that add to his sound and identity (Hargreaves et al, 2016). There is no single word to express and describe a musician's nature and it seems unfair to label them using a genre of music. On the other hand it is beneficial to give an overview of our protagonists background and spot their direct input on the compositions. 

Christopher Rodulfo is a percussionist originating from Aruba who has primarily focussed on drum kit since he arrived in Finland. Having performed with several bands based mostly on Caribbean music in the past, during his studies he has had the opportunity of playing and performing Flamenco music, Brazilian music and has exposed himself to the uneven meter rhythms found in the balkans, for example. Christopher has also worked with jazz musicians and formed his own intercultural band to play his own music. 

Repkat Parhat is an Uyghur guitarist who focused on flamenco techniques while living in China. Despite never being too deep into the rich Uyghur traditional music, he carries the tradition through ears and blood. Since living in Finland he has played in a wide range of musical contexts and collaborated with musicians from different regions of Africa, Aruba, Brazil, Greece and Spain, for example. 

Vasilis Katopodis is a musician originating from Greece who mostly played the electric bass in rock, punk and reggae genres while living in his home country. Later, he picked up the guitar, oud and percussion playing in a diverse range of musical contexts with musicians from many different backgrounds. His own intercultural ensemble is made up of musicians form 5 different cultural backgrounds, for example. 

Lastly me, I am a greek singer. I have been singing mostly urban greek, folk and traditional music. Later and through the program I have been exploring other music also and have sang in languages as franco-haitian, spanish, portuguese, swedish, finnish, uyghur, chinese, polish.

Inevitably the background and the focus of interest of every musician is reflected in their own way of playing and, by extension, on the musical result. Every little element has its roots somewhere. After observation, this is visible in the songs and it also very welcome. There is a strong vision for every song, but what was also very important for me is that every member feels the liberty to express themselves.  I think that often the vision for a song is more that just specific chords or eighth notes; It goes beyond these elements. It is a feeling, an idea, a sound, and then the rest of the magic happens through the ways in which the musicians will ascribe their own interpretations. If a musician is given the liberty to put their own emotion and way of expression, it will create a solid foundation for supporting the vision for the song even more. Therefore, it is important that the leader of the group realises their vision in an organic way.

Through collaborative cooperation ways of realising the concept of the song are coming to surface, that may extend the imagination or skills of the main artist or that are exactly what was planned for the song from the beginning, expressed in an ideal way. Other times, these ways may carry and drift the song away from the original idea. The individual character of the musicians blends and gets filtered through the perspective of the main artist. This occurs continuously and it becomes a constant battle for the composer to balance between the original idea and the natural development of the music. During the rehearsal where I initially introduced the song “I am not the woman you fancy” our guitarist, Repkat, “swung” the melody while it was originally intended to be a straightforward 2/4, as it is commonly played in greek folk music. It was an element that we kept and that also affected the phrasing of the singing and lines of the accompanying guitar. 

Another example of how the result is influenced by opening the process and including the input of the musicians playing, is the different versions of the song “Down and Over”. Having a more electronic sound in the first recording, the certain character of this demo is reflecting the identity of the duo who developed the song. When later the duo is accompanied by bass and calabash, performing in a more acoustic setting, the character of the song is shifted. Even though the core musical elements remain, the overall feeling of the song changes as the group interacts and perceives the song in a more introvert way. Later on, when the same song is played in my bachelor concert, the texture of the sounds changed as the instrumentation was different. An interesting fact is that the majority of the musicians remain the same in these different takes, but the sound and identity of the group is alternating in time influenced by the interaction of the band, but also by the shifting personal focus of interest of each other.   

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Video, 4: "If I'll lose you" performed at the Bachelor concert by the band - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2019)

Audio, 6: "If I'll lose you", - (Panagiotopoulou, C. Gotsopoulos, A. 2019)

Audio, 7 : "Down & Over" demo by the duo (Panagiotopoulou, C. Gotsopoulos, A. 2017)

Video, 5: "I am not the woman you fancy" performed at the Bachelor concert by the band - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2019)

Sometimes a picture can transfere an idea, an emotion, better than words. We did that. We used pictures as references for the overall feeling of a composition. For "If I'll lose you" for example we had the picture of winter waves hitting on the rocks.

Audio, 8: "Down & Over" performed with duo and the band - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2018)

Video, 6: "Down & Over" performed at the Bachelor concert by the band - (Panagiotopoulou, C. 2019)

Gallery: Examples of different notation used for the rehearsals

Audio, 5: "The Dream", - (Parhat, R. 2019)

References

[1] Handelsbeurs Concerts, YOLDA. A Story on Music, Migration & Mobility (documentary, 2015), YouTube, YouTube,19 Nov 2015. Web. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjzlfxoFG6o

[2] Chrysa Panagiotopoulou,We are together - Helsinki Cotonou Ensemble documentary, YouTube, YouTube, 17 Apr 2018, Web 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdjOaR69zg

[3] Parhat, R. Panagiotopoulou, C. All you don't say, studio video by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, June 2019

[4] Panagiotopoulou, C. Parhat, R. Katopodis, V. Rodulfo, C. If I'll lose you, concert video by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, May 2019

[5] Panagiotopoulou, C. Parhat, R. Katopodis, V. Rodulfo, C. I am not the woman you fancy, concert video by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, May 2019

[6] Panagiotopoulou, C. Parhat, R. Katopodis, V. Rodulfo, C. Down and Over, concert video by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, May 2019

B. Audio

C. Videos

D. Interviews & personal notes 

A. Literature

[1] Rodulfo, C. Parhat, R. Panagiotopoulou, C. Wildfires, Improvisation recording by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, October 2018

[2] Panagiotopoulou, C. All you don't say, Demo recording by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, September 2018

[3] Saarenkylä, V. Rodulfo, C. Panagiotopoulou, C. All you don't say, Rehearsal recording by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, November 2018

[4] Parhat, R. Panagiotopoulou, C. All you don't say, Studio Recording by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, July 2019

[5] Parhat, R. Panagiotopoulou, C. Rodulfo, C. Tyrkkö Ravelska, S. Hosseini, A. Katopodis, V. Abdurrahmani, M. Martínez Albero, I. The Dream , Concert Recording by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, May 2019

[6] Gotsopoulos, A. Panagiotopoulou, C. If I'll lose you, studio recording, February 2019

[7] Gotsopoulos, A. Panagiotopoulou, C. Down and Over, demo recording, 2017

[8] Gotsopoulos, A. Panagiotopoulou, C. Katopodis, V. Parhat, R. Saarenkylä, V. Down and Over, concert recording, May 2018 

[1] Katopodis, V., Interviewed by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, 6 October, 2018

[2] Panagiotopoulou, C., Personal notes, September, 2018

[3] Rodulfo, C., Interviewed by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, 23 November, 2019

[4] Parhat, R., Interviewed by Chrysa Panagiotopoulou, 20 November, 2019

Pictures

[1] Fragoulis, A. Forming Identity, 2019

[2] Panagiotopoulou, C. Notation for studio recording for ''All you don't say'', June 2019

[3] Panagiotopoulou, C. Gallery, Notation for rehersals, 2019

In this exposition we untangled the process of a transcultural band working on original compositions and we see the musicians reflecting on different aspects of the collaboration. Through the examples presented we have the chance to see how the musicians approached every song, how they worked through the challenges and how the group found balance between their personal aesthetics and the vision of the composer.

On the other hand, we see how the input from the individual musicians contributes and influences the identity of the main artist, who is the composer, singer and leader of the band. It becomes apparent that through this process of collaboration, all members affect and influence each other, impacting on the music. Elements that surface from the way a musician is interpreting the purpose of the music, suggestions that are made during rehearsals or the forms of expression during the concert, can often be adopted by the main artist/project facilitator. Either consciously through the process of reflection, or perhaps unintentionally, these aspects become become additions to the elements that make up the artist's sonic identity.

This experience, of working with the band on my own compositions was a process of continuous reflection that has helped me to be aware of what I want to call my own, how I want to stand on stage, which ways of collaboration help me achieve this and which musical elements suit me. In other ways, it helped me acknowledge my sound spectrum and built a communication toolbox for my future collaborations.

[1] Thomson, N.R. and Lähdeoja, O., 2019. Forming a Sonic Identity through the Integration of Transculturality and Technology. Body, Space & Technology, 18(1), pp.33–60.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/bst.316

[2] Sawyer, R. K., & DeZutter, S. 2009. Distributed creativity: How collective creations emerge from collaboration. Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, 3(2), 81

[3] Crispin, D., 2019. Artistic Research as a Process of Unfolding, Norwegian Academy of Music, 3, https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/503395/503396 

Conclusions

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