media

I heart Artemis

by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski

In the time before time, Athena and Artemis meet, fall in love, and live a brief eternity of passion. But their paradise can’t last. On earth, men wage war, indulge their lusts, and exploit the land. Athena and Artemis watch in horror as the world falls apart, and must unite to defend what cannot defend itself. Is time running out? The deities are watching. I heart Artemis is a story about a mythological love and a very real crisis, which asks the most pressing questions about humanity’s future.

Filmed March 17, 2022 at the MAAS Building.

New Suns

Released May 20, 2022

Contained in this album - Variant 6’s first full-length record - is a rich history. We began recording this project in November 2019, intending to finish and release the completed album in 2020. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, our final sessions were delayed again and again, until we could finally reconvene in the summer of 2021. We’ve been bursting to share this record for over two years. 

The music we offer here celebrates the virtuosic potential of voices singing together. It represents a collection of some of our favorite repertoire from our first half-decade as an ensemble. The music is harmonically rich, deeply expressive, adventurous, and poignant. We are grateful to the composers for their fearless imaginations and for their trust in us. Their music answers the question posed by Denise Levertov in The Sea’s Wash in the Hollow of the Heart: “What alchemy shines from under that shut door, spinning out gold from the hollow of the heart?”

reviews

“Philadelphia-based Variant 6… perform six recent works that are inspiring on many levels, from the marriage of meaningful texts and compelling music to the performances, which are astonishing in tonal focus, pinpoint intonation, subtlety of expression and sheer vocal virtuosity. It would be difficult to imagine the composers not pinching themselves to hear their creations given such radiant shaping.” - Gramophone

“None of the six members in this ensemble of busy Philadelphia freelance singers has perfect pitch. Tuning forks are seldom used. Yet chords are so perfectly tuned that their blends almost sound electronic on the group’s first full-length album New Suns…” - Philadelphia Inquirer

“One of the more appealing things about Variant 6 is that its a cappella tapestries are woven by six voices, enough to produce a glorious polyphonic sound but not so many that the listener can't separate one strand from another….The clarity of the recording itself also enables the contribution each singer's making to come into sharp focus.” - Textura

Fall and Decline

Released August 27, 2021

This CD by Variant 6 chronicles the heights to which humanity can soar—but also the depths to which it may come crashing down. Composed by Gregory W Brown and scored for the solo voices of Variant 6 and electronics, the sounds range from typical choral textures (though peppered with microtones) to angular and aggressive electronic soundscapes.

The lyrics may span two-and-a-half millennia, but their spirit and subjects are abiding: humankind's struggle against the limitations of time, conflict, inevitable decay. Persian rulers of the fifth century BCE, Baroque historians, poets of the Victorian age, contemporary wordsmiths, they are all caught in a grander, timeless labor—as is every one of us. Fall and Decline is a stern reminder of Humanity’s ephemerality, but even more, it's a harbinger of hope, a celebration of creative endeavors despite perpetual adversity.

reviews

“What we have is a virtuosic vocal work in a direct line to such pieces as Luciano Berio's work with the Swingle Singers. Polyphony, close harmony, recordings as found objects jostle amongst a wealth of other references.” - Planet Hugill

“But After Six Years” starts the listen with the poetic and expressive vocals dancing around each other with grace and playfulness as bare but impactful percussive sounds add even more allure, and “The Wine Of Life” follows with an impressive range, where the voices harmonize with incredible fluidity and warmth. - Take Effect Reviews