Ruby Singh has announced a follow-up to his JUNO-nominated and West Coast Music Award-winning album Vox.Infold. The composer and producer will share Vox.Infold II on November 29.
The nine-track Vox.Infold II is described as an a cappella work exploring "the gateways on either side of life," featuring compositions that welcome new souls, mark our time on Earth, and honour the outgoing spirits through the sound of Indigenous, Inuit, Black and South Asian voices.
The vocal ensemble consists of PIQSIQ's Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay, Dawn Pemberton, Russell Wallace, Shamik Bilgi, Tiffany Moses, Hussein Janmohamed and Singh himself.
"Over the past number of years I've lost many elders in my family and, at the same time, a whole lot of beautiful little babies have come into our community," Singh shared of the album in a statement. "This album was created both as a welcome to the new ones joining us and as prayer for those that have passed, for so much of human history we have used song as a ritual marker for two of life's biggest events: birth and death. While composing the album I began to think about the music I would like to hear on my own deathbed and realized how similar that would be to a lullaby; on all sides of life we want to feel the love of our dear ones. So this album is an expression of that love we carry for our young ones and our elders as they journey to and from the spirit world."
"The Chase" is the first of Vox.Infold II's pieces to arrive, complete with a video made in collaboration with interdisciplinary nonprofit Chimerik 似不像 you can view below. Per a release, the visuals were inspired by "a desire to emulate and represent the journey of the hunt," as visual layers shift in response to sound elements to represent the way landscapes and predators can play tricks on the mind and keep one on edge.
Vox.Infold II:
1. Solar
2. Return
3. The Invitation
4. Radiate
5. Heights
6. Snare
7. The Chase
8. Parade of Lost Souls
9. Mojuba