Yann Novak - The Voices of Theseus (2024) [Hi-Res]

The legend of Theseus, who saved Athens' children from the Minotaur, led to a commemorative pilgrimage involving the ship of Theseus, sparking a philosophical paradox: when does a ship, repaired piece by piece, cease to be the same entity?

On my last album, I utilized the myth of Theseus’ ship as an ontological framework to tease at the nuances of sameness. Reality is elastic; it is a multifaceted composition that can be observed and interpreted, and altered, in an innumerable number of ways. The identity of an object or a moment is flexible, partially dependent on how it is perceived. And yet, because of my partial color blindness, dyslexia, and tinnitus, I can’t trust my own perception. There’s no real way to know how great the disparity is between my observed experiences and those of another. It is plausible then to suggest that there is no clear limit of how many pieces of our shared reality can be removed before it stops being just that.

On The Voices of Theseus, I sought to further complicate this framework. First I invited artists Madeleine Cocolas, Lawrence English, FAX, and Bana Haffar to remix tracks from the album, challenging the boundaries of authenticity, identity, and transformation. While these artists were working on their remixes I had the opportunity to perform this body of work with a number of live vocalists, the last of which was G. Brenner. Our performance pulled me so far outside my comfort zone, that I felt this experience should not be limited to performance alone. It was this desire that led to me inviting G. Brenner to the studio to record new versions of four tracks from the album.

Together these eight pieces create an alternate rendering of The Voice of Theseus, through different sets of eyes, ears, and perceptual differences. The Voices of Theseus invites listeners to question how these collaborators, and own their unique perceptions, might diverge from others' highlighting the indeterminate nature of reality and the inherent uncertainty in shared experiences.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Yann Novak - Traversing the Substrate (Vocal Mix) (5:34)
1.02 - Yann Novak - Seeing Light Without Knowing Darkness (Lawrence English Remix) (6:12)
1.03 - Yann Novak - Super Coherent Light (Vocal Mix) (8:47)
1.04 - Yann Novak - Patterned Behavior (FAX Remix) (4:52)
1.05 - Yann Novak - Seeing Light Without Knowing Darkness (Vocal Mix) (8:26)
1.06 - Yann Novak - Patterned Behavior (Bana Haffar Remix) (5:14)
1.07 - Yann Novak - We Went out, Not with a Whimper, but a Whisper… (Madeleine Cocolas Remix) (4:06)
1.08 - Yann Novak - We Went out, Not with a Whimper, but a Whisper… (Vocal Mix) (5:06)