This could be a tape, a High Fidelity top N list, a digitape (which the spell checker suggests should be written ‘digit ape’), a tribute or just plain flame-bait! It’s a few names/sounds/sensations that have been rattling around my brain for quite sometime.
In today’s starkly visual world, where video dominates (from YouTube - five years dude! - to the debate over HTML5, or more accurately over the <video> tag), a disembodied voice can still evoke strong emotion - maybe even more so, unaccustomed as we become to the lack of visual stimulus.
This is given in no particular order and is incomplete, highly personal, biased and - in stark contrast to it’s title and subject - replete with visual content.
You really should close your eyes…
Maria Callas, la Divina. What more is there to say…
Cecilia Bartoli, whose voice made me go back to opera after long years. “There once was a King…”
Petra Magoni. Love at first note.
Madeleine Peyroux. Smokie nights, low lights and cacique con cola.
Cassandra Wilson for haunting my midsummer full moons all these years
Η Ιφιγένεια, των Νάμα. Δροσιά το καλοκαίρι, ταξίδι, μικρές οδύσσειες.1
Estrella Morente Της χρωστάω το νόστο κάθε επιστροφής.2
Alternatively, you can pretend you’re listening to radio.
1Cool in the summer, travel, little odysseys - I know, it doesn’t translate well 2I owe her the nostalgia of every return