Written by Emma Claire

The courtyard of Bart’s Books, famously open-air, will soon have a dozen full-throated songs swirling polyphonic rhythms up into the night sky.

“Bart’s seemed like the perfect place for Arrington’s workshop. The ability to have an outside experience while still being internal… to be in touch with your inner self while in a group setting,” says Rob Magill of Ojai label Weird Cry Records. 

First hearing him at Greater Goods in 2018, Magill saw Arrington de Dionyso was published by a label he admired, Astral Spirits, and took notice. “Musically, Arrington is, in my view, a free jazz musician who invents woodwinds through a world music approach, especially that of Asia and Europe.” Magill invited Arrington back to Ojai for another show that year, this time joined by Tuvan psychedelic ethno-rock group Hartyga at the Women’s Center downtown. 

A prolific producer, Magill has been putting on shows at places around town like the Women’s Center, the Grange, and Bart’s since 2009. His label Weird Cry, established in 2013, has put out 114 records to date, eleven this year alone. One of those records out this year is The Mountain From The Mountain, pulled from Arrington’s archives, having been recorded in New Zealand a few years back. The cover art is shamanic, a painting by Arrington in his usual style, jungle cat fangs swirling into human faces, eyes, and flowers. 

Arrington de Dionyso likes the phrase TRANCE PUNK to describe his creative ethos, whether in his paintings or as Old Time Relijun’s frontman. Combining traditional ritual trance and electrified experimental approaches, de Dionyso values the shocking and the hallucinatory, always aiming to channel Spirit. 

“I draw heavily upon the shamanic traditions of Tuvan throat singers while also being informed by blues, rock, and avant-garde music…

…Every time I performed, I received questions about the vocal techniques I employ in my shows, so I started giving workshops in 2003…When working with musicians from Tuva, I’ve seen they often have a harder time explaining HOW to do a certain technique because throat singing is such a natural part of their culture, where young people learn throat singing simply by imitating an elder. I developed an approach to help students experience the physical embodiment of their own vocal apparatus as a way to connect with the natural world. This facilitates a deeper exploration and makes it a little easier to pick up the advanced techniques of polyphonic singing,” says Arrington

The purpose of this workshop is to help people free their voices. Cultivating an awareness of vocal ability and understanding the process for removing vocal limitations is a valuable undertaking for any person, whether that’s someone who has never thought of themself as a singer or someone who is a committed performance artist, or someone interested in ethnomusicology and sound healing.

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Editor’s note: this workshop is called “Unleashing the Voice in Creative Music: From Raw Expression to Refined Technique, Singing with your Embodied Voice!” It is not accurate to call it a throat singing workshop. Tuvan throat singing is a closed indigenous practice.