Deep Cabaret Vox is a loose and growing collective of improvising vocalists, led by myself, committed to making collectively improvised vocal events. It has so far involved the likes of Phil Minton, Maggie Nicols and Cleveland Watkiss as well as Beth Allen, Steve Boyland, Ali Rigg, Amy Rome, Wayne Ellington, Rachel Healey, Jilly Jarman, Mary Keith, Bob Lockwood, Ben McCabe, Mary Oliver and Sue Parish.

Though we began with the idea of improvising an opera what emerged is more of an ' improvatorio '.   Cante Jondo was the first improvatorio we performed, in Sept 06. In June 07 Hearing Voices marked   the first stage of the Arts Council of England, PRS Foundation and Lancaster City Council funded project Flocking which allowed us to continue expanding the form and the collective.  

I've always thought that improvised music, when it works, is   like those clouds of birds all   flying   in one direction and, in a sudden dart, veering off in another; hundreds acting as one organism. So Flocking took imaginative flight from the skydances of starlings in sounding the experience of the individual when many act as one.

Flocking was a research project which built on the success of Cante Jondo , this time involving the improvising string quartet Four Candles and acousmaticians Annti Sakari Saario and David Prior , with a specially written libretto by Sarah Hymas .   After two weeks of work which involved twenty musicians in June and July 07, performances of Flocking: An Improvatorio took place in Sept 07 at Lost Voices in Liverpool and in Ashton Memorial, Williamson Park, as part of Lancaster Jazz Festival.

"some of the best vocal music of the 21st century"

"great mix of inventive structures and free flowing spontaneity"

You can see and hear video and audio extracts from this performance here. News of further performances of Flocking and other Deep Cabaret Vox events can be found in Events

Flocking: An Improvatorio for four voices, string quartet and acousmatics.

Beth Allen, Steve Boyland, Mary Keith'   Steve Lewis   voices

Graham Clark , Justin Lingard , Olivia Moore , Semay Wu strings Antti Sakari Saario , David Prior   acousmatics

Sarah Hymas libretto Jenny McCabe banners

Ashton Memorial   organic effects

Click here to see a short video clip

Photos By Jenny McCabe