All-female singing collective Deep Throat Choir perform songs from their multi-layered second album ‘In Order to Know You’ for Voices Unwrapped at Kings Place. With support from harpist-beatmaker-producer, Marysia Osu.

“I’m reeling, I’m restless,” sing Deep Throat Choir from the heart of their second album. That restlessness manifests in a set of tremendously abundant, original songs from the east London female and non-binary vocal collective, founded by Landshapes member Luisa Gerstein. Released via Bella Union in December, In Order to Know You is a multi-layered assertion of freshly expansive range, driven by two core virtues: a sense of strength in unity and an open embrace of its singers’ personal experiences, shared through collective, supportive vocal expression.

After 2017’s largely covers-based debut album, Be OK, the choir recognised the call to evolve. “Having been singing together for five-plus years, and having released an album of mostly covers, it felt like the logical next step to make our own music together,” says Gerstein. “This album is the alchemy of all the specific voices and players that make up the choir, and a collaborative process of writing and sharing music and ideas. Sonically, I wanted to move beyond just voices and percussion, to see what richness could be brought with instruments and electronics, and to transition from a choir that does covers to a band with loads of vocalists.”

Deep Throat Choir is an all-female singing collective formed in 2013 by Luisa Gerstein. Having played in the bands Landshapes and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, the project was driven by the simple desire to bring music making back to a few basic elements: just voices and drums. Not for the love of choirs per se, but for the love of raw female voices thrown together, of the interplay of intricate vocal melodies and harmonies; Luisa wanted to sing and arrange the music she loved, and to hear it stripped and bolstered in that specific way that lots of voices can do. A melody sung by one voice is so different to a melody sung by many, and the same goes for words; the sentiment is altogether transformed when carried by a collective as opposed to an individual. This is exemplified perfectly in the line “show me emotional respect” from the choir’s arrangement of Bjork’s Stonemilker.  It is not just one woman’s plea, but an anthem for all.

Marysia Osu is a Polish born harpist-beatmaker-producer. She was classically trained on the harp at Trinity Laban, however she plays in multiple genres and styles, expanding the possibilities of her instrument with electronic FX. She is a member of Levitation Orchestra who recently released their second album, ‘Illusions & Realities’ on Gearbox records and a long term collaborator of the spoken word artist MA.MOYO. She regularly performs with various artists including Plumm, Alabaster DePlume, Ghost In The Tapes and Nadeem Din-Gabisi,  As a solo artist, Marysia uses her instrument and electronic elements to create sonic worlds, weaving together harp, beats and dreams.