The glossolalia funk, a capella techno, heterodyning rap and Upper Paleolithic shamanism of Melbourne artist, Alex Vivian’s ALWAYS has been described by Mess + Noise as a ‘linguistic circus, a vowel vandal and a syntax destroyer all in one - looping vocal tones into a continuous elastic rhythm and sewing them together in a cosmic playground’.
Vivian’s vocal ceremonies draw just as much inspiration from the fantastic realms of Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer role-play as they do from radical improvisers like Carles Santos, Jaap Blonk, Dylan Nyoukis and Makigami Koichi, weirdo Rough Traders, Furious Pig, and the hypnotic minimalism of Meredith Monk.
Situated ethnosonically somewhere between Inuit katajjaq, the trance ritual of Balinese Kecak, and the sylvan counterpoint of Pygmy chorus, Always’ polyglot snort has been tipped by Matmos/Pitchfork’s Drew Daniel as ‘simple, powerful, and very odd’, while Aquarius Records has called it ‘totally insane’.
As an integral player in both Australia’s visual arts and musical underground, Vivian has recorded for labels Nervous Jerk (Animal Collective, Fabulous Diamonds, Dead C) and Chapter Music (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, The Twerps), and has exhibited widely both collaboratively and solo at galleries such as Y3K, Joint Hassles, Black and Blue, TCB art inc. and Auckland’s Gambia Castle.
