Undercurrents- Kiva and Wolfgang Saus
920 views•Sep 9, 2009 30ShareSaveOMN 871 subscribers Undercurrent – Song by Kiva Šímová (E-Piano) http://www.kivaweb.com and Wolfgang Saus (Overtone Singing) http://www.oberton.org – Live at the Overtone Festival Prague 2009 http://www.alikvotnifestival.cz/ Soundtrack recorded by Wolfgang Saus http://www.oberton.org – Video recorded and created by Jens Mügge http://www.jensmuegge.eu
The Biography
Kiva Simova is a seasoned musician from Manitoba (based in Toronto, ON, Canada). Best known for polyphonic overtone singing (2 pitches from one voice), she has enthralled audiences globally with her innovative ways of blending this art form with genres not commonly associated with it. Such as….jazzy pop/ experimental/ world, accompanying herself on keyboards. With 3 solo CDs to her credit (The Ladder ’98, Pulse ’05, and newest The Quality of Light ’14), her current re-invention finds her leaping off to tour solo, conduct overtone singing workshops and improvise with others at every opportunity. Speaking of….her solo career has been sprinkled with numerous vocal improvisations with other artists. Live, in recordings and soundtracks, she’s worked with the likes of Tanya Tagaq, Jennifer Berezan, Wimme, Vladiswar Nadishana, Olla Vogala Orchestra and many more. A wild improv done with world renowned didgeridoo player Ondrej Smeykal on the new CD is testament to this (Meeting in Dreamtime).
“ethereal, magical, guttural and entrancing all at once”- John Kendle, Winnipeg Free Press
“highly personal, yet global in scope and tone”- Penguin Eggs Magazine
“a force to be reckoned with”- Evolution of Media
Always the odd one out, a child boldly singing her own harmony in the otherwise all unison church choir, playing by ear was a natural. Pop, classical and jazz piano studies led to membership in all kinds of bands. This Winnipeg music veteran ultimately went on to carve out her own inimitable niche over the years since she started overtone singing in ’89. As a tour member (backup vocals and keyboards) of Crash Test Dummies for the ’94 world tour in support of ‘God Shuffled His Feet’, she demonstrated overtone singing during introductions at each concert. Expanding horizons in ’09, as one of a very few, she created a substantial body of work for overtone choir, debuting as a conductor in ’10 with her own such choir Auralia in Prague.
Past recordings feature world class musicians to contribute their magic, with an emphasis on many different cultures, especially by way of percussion. Kiva’s newest music has a strong leaning to intelligent lyrics, her piano playing skills, still with the ‘special spice’ of overtones appearing judiciously. Described as “alt singer songwriter” by George Koller (big emphasis on “alt”). In many ways, back to her roots and getting down to the essence of the songs. The timeless and biggest hit is ‘Regret‘ from the debut CD The Ladder. A moving and melancholy anthem with an overtone chorus, it addresses the repeated errors of humankind. This is one piece that continues to generate the most unusual opportunities for this artist.
Career highlights include:
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Kiva Simova now is making herself available for touring almost anywhere, and sharing her skills with adventurous singers.
Published on Sep 19, 2010
Published on Dec 14, 2017
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Martin Philippe Jan 2, 2011.
Kiva Simova is a Canadian overtone singing teacher, composer, conductor, keyboardist (based in Toronto as of April 2017) with international recognition as a western pioneer, combining overtone singing with world beat/ jazz/ pop/ experimental/ new classical music. She is frequently called upon for live and recorded vocal improvisation with other artists. These include Tanya Tagaq (Inuit throat singer), Lisa Walker (improvisation with whale song), The Yellow Sisters, New Millennium Orchestra, Olla Vogala Orchestra, The Ormidales, Live Ullmann, Ring Cycle Orchestra, Strange Angels, Vladiswar Nadishana, Jennifer Berezan, Wimme and for film soundtracks (i.e. Beit Sha’ar, honorable mention at Dubai Int’l Film Festival, Dec ’10). She was a tenor member of the European Overtone Choir, Spektrum overtone choir and the International Choir of Prague. She also composes music for overtone choirs, having directed her own, AURALIA, in Prague.
Her diversified career, starting around 1978, began with a solid basis of classical and jazz piano training. The early professional years included stints in several rock, pop and R & B bands. Later on, she performed extensively as a solo act, including a jazz circuit in Japan.
Ongoing attention for her innovations in harmonic overtone singing has led to some unusual performance situations. International appearances have included: guest vocalist with orchestra »Olla Vogala« in Brugge, Belgium (2002), main stage artist at KIEKU throat singing festival in Helsinki, Finland and Nordic House in Reykjavik, Iceland (’01), and only foreign female artist at the International Symposium of Throat Singing in the Republic of Tuva, Russia (1995). In May /08 she performed at the International Polyphonic Festival of Albania (in ancient ruins with her laptop). She was also world tour member with the Crash Test Dummies at the height of their fame, in support of »God Shuffled His Feet« in 1994-1995, where she demonstrated overtoning at each concert. Venues included the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London, and appearances on Saturday Night Live and David Letterman in New York City.
| Her debut »The Ladder« (1998) has dreamy, metaphorically rich offerings and elements of jazz, pop, impressionism and worldbeat. Cultural influences such as Tuvan, East Indian, Celtic, Balinese and Japanese are apparent. Roughly half the tracks on »The Ladder« contain some form of this technique. Lyrically, it’s an expression of her personal, theoretical and global ponderings, full of lush imagery and wordplay. |  |
This all comes together with hair raising harmonies and highly melodic vocals that are simultaneously sweet, powerful, innocent and exotic.;
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Kiva continues to stretch musical boundaries with the release of »Pulse«. It falls into the category of ‘otherworldly worldbeat’. She creates layers of textural vocals with mostly imaginary language (»vocables«), sometimes imitating instruments, combining this with rhythms from several different cultures. Latin, African, East Indian, Caribbean, and even a little Klezmer, are influences that appear in »Pulse«. |
The uplifting results are unique hybrids that meld East and »new« West. From »The Ladder«, »Pulse« and beyond, all her work documents an unorthodox history of study, performance, world travel and experimentation.
Kiva’s third CD- The Quality of Light, released in 2014 
The Quality of Light features more overtone singing (on 7 out of 10 tracks) with a strong emphasis on jazzy pop with lyrics, and piano. The last track is totally improvised with world renowned didgeridoo player Ondrej Smeykal.
TRAN QUANG HAI's world throat singing 