Eleonora Kampe – a Latvian artist based in Riga – is among the creators who consistently expand the understanding of the voice as a fully fledged instrument and a vehicle for bodily and emotional experience. Her practice grows out of long immersion in experimental music and sound art, where improvisation, live composition and attentive listening intertwine into a single process. On her second solo album, Breath. Play., Kampe focuses on working with breath and emotional states – treating the recording studio as a space for introspection and transformation. This is music that emerges from the tension between spontaneous gesture and deliberate form, between somatics and imagination. Simultaneously the artist operates in other contexts – notably the duo Ringhold, where she blends experimental vocal techniques with singing and narration. In the conversation she discusses her beginnings, her understanding of “voice as an instrument”, the limits of experimentation, her creative process and how personal experiences and emotional crises can become the impulse for sound.
Artur Mieczkowski
Artur Mieczkowski: How did your adventure with voice art and the world of experimental music begin?
Eleonora Kampe: I started to go to experimental music events when I was 17. It turned out to be a natural state for me to go to this kind of happenings. It took me many years before I thought I could participate as a performer on that scene. I started to learn voice at 24 after I dreamt that one person (whom I knew vaguely) was teaching me something special. My dream did not reveal to me precisely what this person was teaching. But the dream left an impression and soon I spoke to this person in real life and it turned out she was teaching voice. It sounds so esoteric but I like to be realistic and I think I simply happened to have this kind of a dream and got curious to communicate it in reality. The rest is history and I was introduced to my instrument.
A.M.: What does the concept of ‘voice as an instrument’ mean to you, and how do you interpret it in your work?
E.K.: “Voice as an instrument” is a root concept in my musical practice. It is one of my main building blocks just as playing a flute as an instrument is to a flutist. It made sense to me from the beginning to create sound compositions using vocal textures. Voice can sound like a wind instrument or a string instrument. It also sounds like voice. It is also a beautiful noise instrument. It is an instrument connected physically to each person’s life experience.
A.M.: What were the most important moments or people that influenced the development of your artistic language?
E.K.: This is a difficult question and my first thought is life as one big expanding moment.
A.M.: Your projects often balance between improvisation and composition – what does your sound creation process look like?
E.K.: I started out with free improvisation but in the last years I have chosen to interpret my work more as live composition. This term suits better my work now as I have gotten to know my style, the roads I like to take and the mood I wish to communicate. Starting a live set I already have a vision about how it could be – so it feels I am live composing rather than improvising from scratch. While working on my albums I record a lot of voice worlds and then begin to study the recorded material and see what direction it takes me. I usually also have a concept that I want to weave into the album. So my creation process communicates and tries to merge the concept and the material I have captured wile recording. My process involves a lot of listening after a lot of recording.
A.M.: Can you tell us about the emotional states you express in your album Breath. Play. and how they resonate with breathing and the body?
E.K.: The concept of Breath. Play. that was “working on emotional states through the medium of voice art” started in winter of 2024 when I was recording a series called “in anticipation”. It was at that time when I began to explore merging voice art and somatic states of mind. It was an emotionally difficult time for me and I decided to literally take my worries into the studio and observe them through the vocal spectrum. It was interesting for me to see how composition gets created by the feeling leading the breath leading the voice.
A.M.: How does your solo work differ from working in duos or projects such as Ringhold?
E.K.: My roots are in experimental voice. When I started to practice abstract voice art I did not image for many years that I would go into lyrical material. I was playing solo and collaborating with experimental sound artists. Ringhold is my duo with guitarist Kalle Tikas – we play avantgarde blues songs with real lyrics and drama. This is a project where I get to merge experimental voice techniques between singing. It is like playing two different instruments – singing voice and abstract voice.
A.M.: What does experimentation in music mean to you, and where is the line between experimentation and conceptual activity?
E.K.: Experimental music can be a way to step aside from our forced reality. A way to experience the untypical possibilities of human social existence. It is a form of therapy. I am not sure about a line between experimentation and conceptuality. Experimentation in itself can be a concept. I like to experimentally approach various concepts. For me experimentation is the lens and the concept is what you see through that lens.
A.M.: What does your daily voice and sound work routine look like – do you have any practice techniques?
E.K.: I have periods when I practice voice regularly and times when I don’t practice much and eventually start to worry if I can still sing. Lately I try to connect vocal practice and studio recording. This means I go in the studio and have my recording set up and just start to do something with voice like a warm up but then it grows into something interesting and then I record it. Lately I have noticed that after so many years of voice work the best warm up is all sorts of stretching and movement without voice and then some deep humming.
A.M.: What are your plans for the future – any new projects, collaborations or experiments you can tell us about now?
E.K.: I’m working on some things here in Riga and also a new album of vocal compositions is starting to form. I’m looking forward to spring time and touring with Ringhold in the Baltics. I have thoughts and activities in progress all the time.
A.M.: Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you the best of luck with your plans.
E.K.: Thanks! I will try to position myself at a perfect angle to catch the luck! Good wishes to you and to Anxious Musick!