Tectonics 2024 TECTONICS: Elaine Mitchener

Elaine Mitchener, “the UK’s boldest operatic voice” (The Guardian), is an experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer whose work encompasses improvisation, contemporary music theatre and performance art. “Coming to see what I do, you don’t sit back,” Mitchener warns. Sometimes is an electronic work for tape and tenor by a truly original American compositional voice, Olly Wilson - a moving interpretation of the Black spiritual ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child’. Mitchener reflects and responds to the circumstances which birthed the centuries-old hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ and its contemporary resonances. And in Unknown Tongue II, there’s an exploration of where Mitchener’s voice leads her and the dialogues it has with itself.

“Any attempts at categorisation are doomed to fail” (The Wire)