juice
London, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Music
Press
The three singers of Juice are each versatile and have stage-presence in abundance; collectively they are formidable. Singing most of their programme from memory – itself an achievement, the singers’ range of sounds, pitches (and the techniques required to produce them) were in themselves compelling... Kerry Andrew’s own luna-cy included a range of vocal gyrations... and there was pleasure to be had from Robert Fokkens’s phonetic virtuosity in a selection from “Words”, and James Lindsay’s “Sanbiki no Kashikoi Saru” (2003). Stagecraft and mouth-popping added to the already-surreal take on Giraud’s poetry in Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire'.. As a contrast, the limpid invention of Piers Hellawell (from “The Hilliard Songbook”) and two settings ... of medieval sacred texts by Nicola LeFanu proved spellbinding, as music and in these flawless performances. - www.classicalsource.com
No doubt about the first night's stars. A female vocal trio called juice (trendy lower-case name, naturally) proved as tangy as their moniker. They have light, folky voices and a delightful manner: big smiles; music memorised so that they communicate directly. But there's nothing casual about their technical skills. They breezed through the brilliant, Berio-like vocal effects of a piece called 'luna-cy' by one of their members, Kerry Andrew, then deftly sang two exquisite carols by Nicola LeFanu. They displayed their theatre skills in six surreal melodramas from Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire'... Robert Fokkens' wittily minimalist 'Words', James Lindsay's rap-inspired 'Sanbiki no Kashikoi Saru', and two well-crafted songs by Piers Hellawell completed the contribution. - The Times
Rarely does the Wigmore pulsate to the music of Japanese hip-hop DJs, recast for female vocal trio. Perhaps it should. Those old string quartets are all very well. But to hear these a cappella voices racing through the culture-hopping hemiolas of Stephen Hatfield's Three Ways to Vacuum Your House or James Lindsay's frenetic Sanbiki no kashikoi saru (a homage to DJ Krush, the star of Japan's drum'n'bass scene) is to be transported to a very different and very exciting universe.
The trio is called Juice. If that implies something fluid, fruity and refreshing, it is apt. Their repertoire extends from classy takes on jazz standards and dark folk songs (Sarah Dacey's Cruel Mother sent a chill up the spine) to longer pieces using avant-garde vocal techniques - patter, huffing, puffing, beatboxing - that make Stockhausen or Berio sound prehistoric.
Gabriel Prokofiev's Simple Songs for Modern Life, settings of exasperated exclamations of urban angst, was perhaps over-extended, though hypnotically patterned. But I loved Robert Fokkens's Words, which was just that: each song a surreal deconstruction of a single word, drawn from the various native languages of this young South African. The last was “sheepdip”, which triggered a hilarious fantasia of baas and bleats. Juice, who do nearly everything from memory and with perfect intonation, are the 21st century's answer to the Swingles or King's Singers - and deserve to be as famous. - The Times
Discography
Roger Marsh: Pierrot Lunaire NMC records
http://www.nmcshop.co.uk/buy/pierrot-lunaire-1/
Mikhail Karikis: Morphica Sub Rosa
http://boomkat.com/downloads/166712-mikhail-morphica
Photos
Bio
juice are at the forefront of the UK's experimental/classical scene; they have performed in Park Lane Group’s Young Artists series at the South Bank in 2008 and the Wigmore Hall in 2009, both to excellent press reviews. They have featured in numerous cutting edge contemporary series including experimental classical club night and record label NONCLASSICAL, with whom they have recently finished recording their forthcoming album. In June 2007, they won second prize at the internationally-renowned Tampere Vocal Festival in Finland - the only UK group ever to be prizewinners. juice feature on Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire' (NMC 2007) and created a 'vocal remix' for Mikhail's album 'Morphica' (Sub Rosa, 2009), since used by the Nederlands Dans Theatre. They have appeared at numerous national and international festivals. Alongside their contemporary repertoire, they perform works by avant-garde pioneers such as Morton Feldman and Meredith Monk.
Over the past few years more of juice's work combines live singing with electronics and/or visuals. They have performed a live part-improvised co-written score to a silent film, The Danger Girl, at the BFi Southbank, and performed a vocal/electronica score at the London College of Fashion Graduate Show at the Royal Academy of Art with UK Beatboxing Champion Beardyman. Kerry Andrew's visual-music-theatre work, 'sedna stories', was written for juice alongside featured visuals, electronics and a live 5-piece band.
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