Randi Pontoppidan

I am a voicestrumentalist. I know that word doesn't exist, untill now. But I really like it. It feels true to what I do. I work with the human voice the way a sculptor works with stone, as raw material with interior logic, physical resistance, and infinite hidden structure. I'm not a singer who improvises. Not a composer who performs. Something that requires its own category. My practice spans three decades and moves freely between free improvisation, electroacoustic composition, sound poetry and performance art. I've performed at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Louisiana. I've sung Stockhausen's Stimmung with Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices, improvised with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Joëlle Léandre, and built duo languages with Sissel Vera Pettersen, Christian Rønn, Thomas Buckner and Povl Kristian that feel less like collaborations than shared discoveries of territory none of us could have reached alone. The voice I bring to all of this is something I've spent a lifetime developing. Extended techniques, live electronics and the organic pulse of the breathing body. Critics reach for words like vast, untranslatable, magical. Diamanda Galás and Maja S.K. Ratkje come up as references, though I think what I'm after has its own particular quality of stillness inside the extremity. About Randi Pontoppidan, – Composer, Experimental Vocalist, Performer, Improviser, Sound Poet and Educator. Nominated for the 2020 Steppeulven award – best vocalist in Denmark. Nominated for the best album 2021 and best vocal album 2022 Danish Music Award jazz. 5 stars to a voice with power and magic – Berlingske Tidende Soundart appear from empty space using only her voice – Politiken A sound journey into the untranslatable alphabet of voice and body. – Information Sublime, sensuel & divine – 6 stars at GAFFA DK Solo album ‘ROOMS’ out now on Chant Records. ‘5 stars to a voice with power and magic’ – Berlinske. Like drugs in the veins’ – Politiken. ‘Randi is a poet of the highest order. With Rooms she takes us on a voyage where space is filled with color and light. And the unexpected is around each corner’. – Greg Cohen Randi Pontoppidan is a recognized and sought after singer, improviser and composer. She works live with loop machines and other electronic devices. She uses her voice exploring musical landscapes and bringing forth new sounds. The voice becomes the instrument. From free improvisation, free jazz, to contemporary music, Pontoppidan has over the years developed extremely extended singing techniques. She has been likened to Diamanda Galás and Maja S. K. Ratkje. Pontoppidan is a member of the award winning vocal ensemble IKI. They have recently been performers and singers at Hotel Pro Formas last work FLAMMENWERFER together with Blixa Bargeld. Performed at Aarhus festuge, The Royal Danish Theatre and Malmø Live in 2024. Randi Pontoppidan is also member of the collective ensemble Damkapellet. She composed the piece Demiurge, out on Dacapo 2023 and performed the piece at Spot Festival in Aarhus 2024. The duo Event Horizon – Greg Cohen and Randi Pontoppidan takes on the bold challenge of making improvised music with voice, electronic and double bass. The love of sculpting sounds, melodies and pulses, makes this duo a visceral and buoyant soundscape. This experiment resulted in a dynamic duo recording Space Geode out on Chant Records 2018. The duo is now become a trio called PAPER TRIO together with saxophone player Thomas Agergaard. They just released an album called HIPPO ROAD, 2024. The vocal/electric duo Randi Pontoppidan and Sissel Vera Pettersen – is an experimental, improvising and imaginative mini-ensemble that sets its sights on guiding the sound of the voice into sonic worlds, which has never been penetrated before. The use of loop machines and live manipulation of the voice make the sound landscapes vary from the entirely near and intimately acoustic sound to a world of “ambient” sound and polyrhythmic beats. New Album INNER LIFT, nominated as best album 2021 at Danish Music Award-jazz. Randi Pontoppidan sings contemporary music as well touring around the world with Paul Hillier’s ensemble Theatre of Voices performing the works of Steve Reich, David Lang, Stockhausen, Cage and Berio. She has worked with the trio Other Gardens, (Linda Edsjö, perc. and Jennifer Dill, flute) since 2010. CD out 2015 including pieces by Steingrimur Rohloff, Hans Henrik Nordstrøm and Juliana Hudkinson. Randi Pontoppidan collaborates with the poet and soundmaker Morten Søndergaard with whom she was invited by the Egyptian/Danish Dialog Institute in 2011 to work with local musicians in the Siwa oasis in Egypt. Music and poetry concerts around europe. Performed and worked with, among others: Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Thomas Buckner, Joëlle Léandre, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Johanna Sulkunen, Simon Toldam, Jørgen Leth, Christian Rønn, Jakob Davidsen, Louise Hindsgavl, Lotte Anker, Martin Fabricius, Simon Christensen, Jørgen Teller, Stuart Lynch,...