Irena Z. Tomažin is a dancer, choreographer, performer, vocalist, singer and improviser, strongly present on the local and international scene. As a musican she made her name with solo project iT, project for voice and dictaphones, where she uses forms of songs, sound poetry, spoken word, theatre, text and perfomance. The project took her on the path of deconstruction of voice which she deepens as an improviser, solo artist or in various groups and collaborations, where she went further with exploration of sound and noise of the voice, textures and in-between spaces of voice, body and bodily mechanics. She performs solo or in collaborations with among others: Tomaž Grom, Lee Patterson, Xavier Charles, Christof Kurzmann, Jonas Kocher, Gaudenz Badrutt, Šalter Ensemble, Tim Blechmann, Michael Zerang, Liz Allbee, Alessandra Eramo, Ilia Belorukov, Okkyung Lee, Maja Osojnik, Christian Kesten, Ina Puntar, Dré Hočevar, Matej Bonin and others.
Her first solo recording as free improviser bears the title ‘Cmok v grlu / Lump In The Throat’ and will be released on 26 February by label Sploh. The album will be presented live on the day of its release in the series Confine Aperto at ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana. The overall visual image of the cd was created by contemporary artist Matej Stupica and designed by Ajdin Bašić. The first part of the record consists of 11 pieces from the latest period, while the second part consists of 5 pieces that were originally done for her audiovisual installation piece ‘Faces Of Voices # Noise’ in production of MoTA – Museum For Transitory Art. This material is transformed and newly composed for this release. With this project Irena Z. Tomažin focuses on sound and bodily matter between voice and various noises, that are product of between/with/after/at the becoming of the voice and deliberately produced and extended noises with repetitive mechanics of the tongue, soft palate, throat muscles, teeth and air in micro resonating spaces of the oral cavity.
Before the release of the album we conducted a short video interview with her. Watch it here:
