New Video: “Offering” from The Visit
The Visit is Heather Sita Black, a vocalist unchained, and Raphael Weinroth-Browne, a powerful cellist. Together they form a self-described defiance of genre, so terms like chamber or polystylistic don’t really fit the bill. The closest long-winded definition might be experimental/avant-garde classical. The Ottawa duo have released two recordings so far and will be making their way to the Czech Republic in November for Nouvelle Prague, a international showcasing event of art from around the world. They’ve decided to share what they’ve been working on up to this point with their first video.
Nation’s capital music blog Something Always interviewed The Visit in March, in which they spoke hopefully of getting to Europe this year and to put out an album by 2015. We are glad to see that it appears that things are going the way they planned.
This expertly shot video in St. Alban’s Church was filmed in February by LOG Creative Bureau. An 11-minute foray into the untapped human voice and the complexity of a cello. The first two minutes are Raphael giving his entire body to his instrument, with his breathing as powerful as a musk ox in rut, and then to the vocalization of Heather’s attempt to explore how far her voice can take her into a song. She has perfect pitch and a seemingly intimate knowledge of her partner’s capabilities, but her body movements betray what’s really going on here — she is not making use of her voice, her voice is making use of her. The music possesses.
I’d rather not say too much about it, for fear of cheapening it. It’s beautiful and emotional. Have I already said too much? Res ipsa loquitor — the thing speaks for itself.