sovratono.

overtone. I offer a three piece EP of vocal and electronic music. The title is sovratono, which is a play-on-words translation of 'overtone' in Italian. It was recorded between September and October, 2022, and is a byproduct of learning how to overtone sing.

[Caption: Album artwork for sovratono.]

Simply defined, overtone singing is the practice of manipulating the vocal tract in such a way as to produce extra tones than the one you are singing. These 'extra' tones fall along the harmonic series (or overtone series) of the fundamental (the base pitch you are singing). I 'stumbled' across this practice quite by accident while doing research on the phonetization of the Oscan alphabet. Oscan is the written and spoken language of the ancient Samnites. A few of the letters are described in several texts as phonetically lying 'in between.' One example is the letter 𐌞 (below, second from the right).

As I tried to pronounce this letter, starting from O and ever-so-slowly changing things in the back of my throat and front of my mouth to pronounce U, I noticed that overtones were being created. At first I thought this might be 'all in my head' (physically, as in only audible to me because my skull was vibrating these extra tones), but as I moved on to the final letter of the Oscan alphabet, sounding somewhere 'between' E and I, again I noticed that overtones were created, this time stronger. As I arched the back of my tongue like a ski slope, and pushed even more air than was necessary, my vocal tract became something like a resonant filter. After several weeks of practicing this new vocal technique, I broached the subject to friends, and demonstrated, as to make sure it was not still just 'in my head.'

Since developing this technique a few years ago, I have taken to incorporating overtone singing into my own music composition and recording. As a result, here is sovratono, an EP of vocal and electronic music, subtly highlighting this my newfound skill. The album artwork is a photograph I took by the seaside and reflected over itself as a nod to the title. There are three pieces: vocevoce (Italian for 'voice-voice'), un altro mare (Italian for 'another sea'), and the titular sovratono.

sovratono can be listened to and purchased here.

Thank you for reading and for listening. Stay tuned for more.