Kira Vollman
Los Angeles native Kira Vollman has been on the local experimental / avant-garde / improv music scene for many years, as a multi-instrumentalist and composer. Using her multi-octave voice as an instrument, she creates striking cinematic atmospheres and moods. “My patience threshold is pretty low”, she reveals. Perhaps this explains her tendency to jump from style to style and sound to sound in her vocalizations. Or does it refer to her sometimes dim view of the rest of humanity? She feels it is her duty to rip the rose-tinted glasses off the delusional and show them exactly how miserable their lives really are. Never without an absurdist’s dark sense of humor, Vollman is an ace at role-playing. She is by turns an operatic soprano, a charming little girl, a guttural demon, a siren seductress or a transvestite monk, sometimes within a single piece of music.
Vollman’s main creative musical outlet has been her collaboration with fellow multi-instrumentalist Joseph Berardi, called Non Credo. Together they have released three full CDs and have performed in Canada and Europe and continue to remain active on the Los Angeles live music scene. Impropera, their “improvised, improper imp opera”, utilizes Vollman’s wide range of vocal sounds to great effect. She also plays bass guitar, clarinets, keyboards and other assorted devices, and supplies the lyrics for Non Credo’s evocative textures.
Aside from Non Credo, Vollman has been involved in several musical projects and bands in Los Angeles. She has written music for film and dance pieces and was a member of the improvising chamber ensemble Fat And Fucked Up, the quirky abstract lounge band Stay Home and Killer Wail. She has toured and recorded with Kid Congo Powers (ex-Cramps) band Congo Norvell, sang with micro-tonalist Kraig Grady and performed with violinist Jeff Gauthier, percussionist Brad Dutz, wind player Vinny Golia, flautist Will Salmon, Joe Baiza of Saccharine Trust, Drowning Pool, 1980’s noise band The Blue Daisies, Liquid Land musicians Helen Gillet (New Orleans) with Simon Berz (Switzerland) for Sassas performance and vocalist/sound artist Anna Homler. She led the improv vocal duet with Kaoru, Punishment Cookies. Vollman is also involved in the visual arts, including painting, sculpture and sound assemblage. You can view her visual work here. Be sure to check out the Sonic Interactive Gallery. There you will find a video demonstration of one of her sonic pieces. Vollman is the Owner/Curator/Director of ARK Gallery & Studios. In addition to exhibitions of visual art, ARK also hosts an experimental music concert series featuring adventurous musicians from Los Angeles and places beyond.
Vollman has completed recording a solo project entitled OutZeit The Geist, which will be released by late 2021.
