Eartickler from Lost Chord by Harry Lieben

Early lofi recording. Not the recording quality of the last three songs, but essential as it shows the lead-up to the other tracks.

Overtone singing in European style (school of Michael Vetter). I combine a low voice with high overtone melodics. At some point I shift my vocal chords (it is a very low key for me to sing in) by changing to a slightly higher pitch or fundamental, but maintaining the overtone melody which goes up by the same amount. The spectrogram shows an exceptionally wide band of frequencies of the overtone melody. I believe that what is going on here is that there is a continuous quick shift between two very close frequencies. This would explain the specific "eartickling" quality of this improvised song.

On a side note: This is the closest I've ever come to producing what I call "The Lost Chord". This is a whistling, vibrating overtone on a low fundamental that I once heard in a documentary. It was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard! When I later bought the DVD of this documentary ("Little Dieter needs to fly" by Werner Herzog), this particular soundtrack was not there! Bummer. I made inquiries and it turned out the singer (which I believe to be Michael Vetter) had objected to Werner Herzog's using the track without his consent. I have searched in Michael Vetter's discography but have not been able to find this recording in any of the cd's I obtained.

The sound is however firmly held in my memory and I'll just keep working on the exact, slight tension I need on my throat to produce it.

The first instrument of man is the voice. The first amplifier, a cave. For a caveman, there is no middle of the road.

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