Voices from the Killing Jar
Kate Soper, composer and vocalist; Wet Ink Ensemble
Carrier Records CD Carrier 021
On her first portrait album, composer and soprano Kate Soper inhabits the interior lives of eight women in various stages of danger and distress. Embodying characters penned by authors ranging from F. Scott Fitgerald to Gustave Flaubert to Shakespeare is no mean feat. Soper deploys a wide vocal range and a correspondingly wide expressive range — from whispers to wailing — to create a striking, at times chilling, palette of tone colors. Similarly, Wet Ink Ensemble is game to provide all manner of acoustic and electronic sounds, including a number of extended techniques, to accompany Soper. The sound world tends toward the bracing and occasionally approaches grating. However, given the violent ends destined for at least four of the eight female protagonists, this shouldn’t be surprising. Indeed, Soper’s edgy sonic explorations are audaciously memorable.