Performer

“The work of Jenni Roditi is truly remarkable. All music speaks to the unconscious. But rarely do we find that conduit from the unconscious back into musical form. Jenni Roditi, employing a sophisticated use of improvisation, a deep understanding of how listening becomes musical expression and her own innate musicality, makes vocal work that is at once utterly original and completely timeless. It speaks of what is most ancient in all of us, and, simultaneously, what is most urgent, present and new. It is, quite simply, extra-ordinary. And very, very beautiful.”

Simon McBurney, Artistic Director, Complicité Theatre, March 2018.

The Sanity Improvisations

As well as live performances and recordings over the years, during lockdowns, to keep the home fires burning, Jenni developed a vein of online live music making in collaboration with Adrian Lee (electric guitar) and Alistair Smith (harp) in two duo practices. They synced up their visual feed from Zoom with audio feeds from Sonobus software, which has less latency than Zoom. Jenni then aligned, edited and mastered these recordings in Logic and iMovie and posted them on social media. after lockdowns, live music-making in person and in concert also began.

Another online lockdown music project was with the Vortex Freedom Sessions online – a place where musicians from across the free improv world posted their lockdown creations, and every couple of weeks, people came together via Facebook as these videos were posted by the curators Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss and Tori Handsley from 8 pm to 11 pm on Monday evenings.

In the performance below improvised, with the same set up described above, composer and percussionist Jackie Walduck joins Jenni. Both performers have Boss RC 505 loopers. Jackie has a keyboard as well as her real vibraphone, and Jenni also has a TC Helicon, Voice Live Touch 2 for vocal processing. Marbling filmwork by Chloe Cooper. Below is the piece they offered for the Vortex Freedom session online in 2020. ‘Il Pleut’ it’s raining. Inspired by a poem by Appollinaire beginning “It’s raining women’s voices”.

‘Il Pleut’ [December 14, 2020]

Solo Voice and Looper

‘Lullaby at the end of an online Ceilidh‘ [January 19, 2022]

Mairi Campbell’s Campbell’s Ceilidh was another lockdown sanity-saving project that Jenni was part of. Here is one of her contributions, using her lockdown sanity-saving looper. 

Duo with Adrian Lee

Song Line Mask [June 22, 2022] text for the poem is here.

Duo with Alistair Smith

Gong Song [February 23, 2023]

The Sanity Improvisations: lockdowns and beyond
[under construction]

JR with Adrian Lee, guitar and Alistair Smith, harp and solo
Sometimes two pieces were produced on one day, according to my note of the dates.