The Cellist’s Voice

There’s a primal feel to cellist Maya Beiser’s “I Am Writing You from a Far-Off Country,” the centerpiece of her Almost Human concert. Armenian melodies, disembodied voices, and atmospheric sounds mix with the cryptic yet alluring voice of the work’s protagonist.

The words are from Belgian surrealist Henri Michaux’s poem of the same name, which Beiser fell in love with when she was growing up in Israel. “I was a teenager and totally obsessed with everything surreal,” she says. “What I found so fascinating was that it was written by a man. Somehow he managed in his poem to capture the [female] voice.”

The new work, co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, is a collaboration among Beiser, Armenian–American composer Eve Beglarian, and Iranian-American video artist Shirin Neshat—one that found Beglarian tapping traditional Armenian vocal melodies and Neshat filming in the Sinai Desert. Beiser performs the work solo, surrounded by nine video monitors. “We really wanted to create an installation rather than a film with a live player,” she says. “The film feels, at times, like an extension of what I do.”

Using a laptop interface, Beiser and her cello trigger sound processors, electronic backing tracks, and recorded vocals by mezzo-soprano Alexandra Montano—a process that blurs the lines between cello and voice, acoustic and electronic, live and recorded. More than anything else, though, “From a Far-Off Country” succeeds because it is passionate in its creation and its performance. “Music for me is very visceral,” Beiser says. “It has to be. It can never be just about ideas.” Dec. 1. 1750 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-375-7600

Bill Snyder writes about music and film for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.