Cara Tolmie's practice centres itself upon the voice, the body and the complex ties between the two. All at once subjective as well as socially determined, she explores voice and body as two codependent entities able to prompt as well as contradict one another. 

Here, on her debut release, her vocal ruminations explore a practice of sounding on both the inhale and exhale as well as a self-soothing touch strategy she developed in reaction to symptoms triggered by post-concussion syndrome. In an attempt to displace vocality towards and through parts of the body extraneous to the mouth, Cara lets sounds forge paths and encircle the body's inner topography, soaking her voice through a labyrinth of pumping blood, organs and the touch of skin.

The result is a music that offers snapshots of the body tempered by different conditions; resting, moving, listening, pleasure, strain and sensitivity. Cara invokes waves of sound; sometimes calm and meditative, sometimes teetering on discomfort; sometimes falling into an anxious refrain. 'Lit by a Car' offers the space and time to come to terms with these feelings and give them life - letting the breath of voice twist and turn in compellingly peculiar new directions.

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All music & recording by Cara Tolmie

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Artwork design by Oliver Barrett

06 Until The Battery Dies

05 Sweating Lightly

04 Alongside Mud

03 With A Twig As A Brush

02 Towards A Party (of 3 Or 4 Or 5)

01 Crooning Inwardly, Gyrating Discreetly

Quenchless (Lungs in Reverse)

Four Channel Soundwork
Aluminium, transducer speakers and voice
13 mins
2022
 
Cara Tolmie b.1984 and Julia Giertz b.1984, both living in Stockholm.
 
Drawing on their shared interest in sound and its relationship to the body, artists Cara Tolmie and Julia Giertz collaborated to make a suspended, sonic sculpture entitled Llac. The curved metal sculpture hangs within the pond, emitting irregular calls, tones and taps towards the multi-layered vocals playing through the speakers overhead. All of the sounds used in this piece are vocal recordings made onsite at Art Lab Gnesta by Cara during a residency in March 2022. These include her mirroring the uncanny sounds of the melting lake with her voice, exploring haunting reverberations in the brewery hall and conducting a cyclical vocal practice she calls Internal Singing. 
Llac is a permanent sonic sculpture that reverberates, sings and contracts, using the sonic as a way to reverberate and call between multiple watery beings.

Commissioned by Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris and Artlab Gnesta as part of 'High Tide, Fine Line' - https://www.artlabgnesta.se/2022/04/21/high-tide-fine-line/

Llac - Julia Giertz and Cara Tolmie

Dear L-- B** Radio, Love C^^^ x

Preposition Demands:

In front of, among then towards: singing. Her driving, plateau finding. No heat.

Standing on something declared!

Onward to: near, close, on top of, onto plateau finding.
Evenly spread above the grouping: that one over there, the blur. Followed by through, past to the outside (off).
And then within, behind plateau finding alongside steady grouping beneath.

Then coming back again in the dance. Freeing others to take it elsewhere. Plunge into that dance effort (half dragged). Not to be jumping and waiting. And then waiting (at best they’re swaying).

Gradual shifting of scene and attention during walk to. And then back, backwards – only now noticed.

Soon after – big slow down to entangle. Big slow back again. Backed up against the door till it feels all right. Fed back again until the planes touch, so that they can protest and scan volition.

But now to go again, out of doors. Pass before, gracefully. The location, approaching.

Installed outside of the motor and peeling.
Close, so very close (dissipated private). Takes them to a sort of need. A bit dark, back on the blur of the law (redressed).
Turned inside out when going from one side to the other. Not gyrating above a certain peak.

Among then towards, in front of: what did you just say? (remix).

Her steering, residual tension (goes unsaid of course).
To before and then inside and then instead of. Stand by.

Something declared! Inside Vehicle! Judge’s Chamber! 

Pilot

Bold Enough To Launch a Thousand Ships

Swollen Songs: Feel The Tears Roll Down

Internal Singing is a practice that learns from Joan La Barbara’s Circular Song Score as well as self-soothing touch strategies that I generated in reaction to symptoms triggered by post-concussion syndrome. It is a multi-sensory listening exercise characterised by peculiar vocal sound, slight movement and touch that attempts to displace vocality towards and through parts of the body extraneous to the mouth. 

This track weaves together several recordings of the practice. 

The Internal Singing unfolds as follows:
“I concentrate on my breathing and quieten my body. I focus my attention on my skin as a tender transmitter between the inside of my body and its touchable outside surface. I sense two points where my body is asking to be touched. I slowly raise my hands and allow them to be pulled towards these two points on my body. I concentrate once more on my breath and very slowly allow sound to emerge both from the inhale and the exhale. I imagine these sounds to be pulled out of, around and between the two points I hold on my body. I do not imagine these sounds in advance but try to allow them to emerge of their own volition. I then play these sounds through my body, manipulating and exploring them through small repeated movements and increased/decreased pressure around the touch points. In this way I can send the vocal sounds inside of my body to the points that are being pressurised by my touch. I can also send the sounds through my skin to my fingertips. Within this I find new vocal sounds by imagining my voice moving between and through the two points, soaking through the material of my flesh, organs, nerves and blood.”

Cara Tolmie

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