Her own way: Gian Slater and her experimental ensemble, Invenio.

AS THE daughter of a pianist and an opera singer, Gian Slater always had a natural inclination towards music. Her extended family is full of musicians, too, and Slater has fond memories of singing in concerts along with her brothers, parents and other relatives. "We were like this little Von Trapp family," she says with a laugh.

Slater, 29, can't recall a time when she didn't want to be a singer. But while her vocation seemed clear, the path towards it was sometimes less obvious. Blessed with a gloriously pure voice and near-perfect pitch, she was persuaded by her music teachers to study classical singing - "and I just hated it," she says. "I'd always want to change the melody and do things a bit differently. So it never really suited me."

In jazz, she found the freedom that was missing in the classical world. She discovered a love of improvising, and also began writing her own songs - songs with unusual melodies and harmonies that were often far removed from the standard fare one might expect from an emerging jazz singer.

Gian Slater.

"I was listening to lots of instrumental music that was really fresh and new," she says. "I was trying all sorts of different things, and I had very supportive teachers and peers, so it didn't occur to me that what I was interested in was a bit unusual until I left the [Victorian College of the Arts]. You know, [as a student] you have all these ideas you're really proud of and you're really gung-ho and ready to go out into the world. So it's a bit of a slap in the face when you realise how difficult it is to get people to listen to your music."

Advertisement

Slater admits her shyness and dislike of self-promotion haven't helped her cause - "the industry side of things really puts me off''. But this softly spoken young woman comes equipped with a deep resolve, and she has persisted in doing things her own way, writing songs with deeply philosophical lyrics - or singing without words and using her voice as an instrument.

"I've always been really baffled as to why people find [wordless singing] so puzzling," she says. ''I mean, everyone hums tunes without lyrics in the shower. But I still have people coming up to me after gigs where I've been singing wordless [vocals] and asking me, 'Did you forget the words, love'?''.

Little by little, though, Slater's road-less-travelled approach has begun to pay off. Her concerts and recordings have consistently attracted glowing critiques, and in 2010 she won a substantial commission from the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival. For the commission concert, Slater formed an experimental 14-piece vocal ensemble - Invenio - and created a startling a cappella suite (Gone, Without Saying) exploring the idea of communication without words.

Visit link:

Freedom in saying little