Laura Catrani - 2022 - Vox In Bestia

(59:20; Stradivarius)

Track list:
- Vox In Bestia, Inferno
1. I. Canto I: Tre Fiere 5:14
2. II. Canto III: Vermi, Vespe, Mosche 3:32
3. III. Canto V: Storni, Gru E Colombe 4:40
4. IV. Canto VI: Cerbero 3:42
5. V. Canto XIII: Cagne Nere 4:21
- Vox In Bestia, Purgatorio
6. I. Canto VIII: Astor 2:22
7. II. Canto XIV: Botoli 4:06
8. III. Canto XV: Agnel 3:38
9. IV. Canto XVIII: Ape 2:32
10. V. Canto XXV: Cicogna 3:21
- Animalia, Paradiso
11. I. Canto I: Aquila 4:05
12. II. Canto VI: Colubro 4:58
13. III. Canto XXIII: Augello 4:18
14. IV. Canto XXIV: Agnello 3:39
15. V. Canto XXV: Pellicano 4:52

Line-up:
Laura Catrani - vocals, percussion


Prolusion.
Italian singer Laura Catrani has a career that stretches back for more than a decade, and a history as a recording artist that appears to have started in 2012 with at least 9 albums where she is credited as a performer or as a solo artist. "Vox in Bestia" is her most recent solo production, and was released in the late summer of 2022 through the Stradivarius label.

Analysis.
This is a production that ventures well outside of the borders of the kind of music I usually write about, and I presume that in terms of style this is an album that most would sort under classical music. This is more due to the traditions of the material rather than the form and execution, as these strike me as more firmly rooted in an experimental and probably avantgarde context.

The material explored here is what I would describe as commissioned work, where three different composers composed the music and a writer was commissioned to produce the words, all of them producing material to suit the performer here, and obviously to suit the content: The animal descriptions found in the works of the great medieval writer Dante Alighieri. Italy celebrated Dante poet in 2021 due to this year marking the 700th year since his passing, and this work was performed as a part of that celebration, first on Italian radio and later live on stage.

The elephant in the room, so to speak, is that this is a just about purebred vocal performance. Some fleeting percussion details appear on occasion, to very good dramatic effect, but everything else here revolves around the vocals. With Catrani being a soprano, she has a voice that covers a vast range and controls a pitch well suited for a dramatic delivery.

That being said, this is very much a multi-faceted performance, where the most dramatic aspects of Catrani's voice is used more sparingly and for planned dramatic effect rather than being an onslaught of a singer with a desire to showcase the extreme parts of her register more exclusively. Soft and almost inaudible melody lines are rather more prevalent, and more or less distorted vocal effects projecting the character of the specific animal highlighted in the different parts of this production is obviously a central point too. If I manage to catch everything going on we get both verbal and non-verbal singing too, and in addition to the vocal parts revolving around melody and singing we also get spoken word parts that documents that Catrani has a fine, sensual and pleasant voice very well suited to the spoken word.

While range, pitch and the use of vocal effects of the low key as well as the dramatic orientation are all impressive, there's an additional aspect of these performances that struck me as very interesting too, namely the use of echoes and resonance. It seems clear that Catrani have explored the venue used to record this album in terms of it's capabilities to produce echo and resonance, and she use this to add additional melody details to the performances, and this effect also adds something of an otherworldly effect in the paces where she choose to use this effect. She is able to explore this facet of the performance very well indeed, ensuring that the material contains liberal amounts of this additional dimension that expands the borders of the landscape explored in a subtle and also very meaningful and satisfying manner.

A vocal album of this kind is well outside of the type of material I normally cover, and I suspect there's a lot more that I could say, state and describe about this production if my knowledge about vocal music and classical music was a bit more extensive than the little I know. As such, I suspect my description also will be more of interest to those without much knowledge and experience of such productions rather than those well versed in them.

Conclusion.
While this production may not be high on the list of most fans pf progressive rock, this is an intriguing production for those with an interest in productions exploring the scope and capabilities of the human voice. Catrani's range of sensual spoken words, soft and borderline intimate soft singing segueing over to vocal effects and dramatic surges is a compelling one, although I do guess that a certain fascination for expressive soprano vocalists with what I presume is a classical tradition as the style foundation probably will be warranted. I experience this as a solid production for what it is, and I see the artist is getting a lot of feedback that is even more jubilant than my own by writers better versed in the realm of music she explores here. Which suggests that this is a safe purchase for those who find my attempts at describing this album to be intriguing.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, September 2022

Links:
https://www.lauracatrani.com/
https://www.stradivarius.it/