Human d’Scent – Between Two Elk
7.27.17 by Jill Lloyd Flanagan

My hope is that this music came from some sort of camping trip gone horribly awry. In the misty tent filled with mosquito and roly-polies, Human d’Scent’s Mia Freedman sings to herself as she fades in and out of consciousness. Months later, the tapes are discovered by the kind folks at Friendship Tapes who edit her sonic journey together as best they can. Mia, of course, is never found.

This is a very pleasant and strange tape. Friedman’s voice (overlaid on top of itself) is the only sounds captured on it. Her voices harmonize like a mad contemporary music ensemble whose repertory ranges from madrigals to vocal jazz and at other times like twittering bird songs or insect noises. The improvised nature of the material works well partially because of Friedman’s vocal talent and the wide stylistic contrasts from track to track guarantee that the limited sonic range doesn’t grow too repetitive. And the nonsensical lyrics and barren anti-style of the packaging keeps any pretense from forming around the music. The tape is short and leaves a pleasant afterthought in the listener of Mia entering an alternate and joyous new reality.

44 copies of this C20 were made, and available from Friendship Tapes.