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Press
2009
'Imagine the sound of three women's voices - two sopranos and a contralto - singing entirely unaccompanied in a high-roofed chapel. They're pure voices, echoing among the arches, almost vibrato-free. A lovely sound, apt for praising something spotless; a hymn to Our Lady's virtue, perhaps.
But has this combination anything else to offer? Could three female voices be funny or rumbustious, could they evoke farmyard noises or a frightening voyage to the frozen North or a sultry afternoon in the Deep South? Could they be jazzy or folky or spookily avant-garde?
...Juice prove conclusively they can be all of these, and more. For over two hours in the lofty, luxuriously ornate chapel of Queen's College they held us all spellbound.
...Material for three female voices is thin on the ground, so Juice has had to create its own repertoire. ... Sarah Dacey's own setting of a cautionary ballad known as the Cruel Mother was vividly doom-laden in mood and musically ingenious; she should write more.
All these were sung with amazing razor-sharp tuning and purity of tone. Lutyens' piece in particular was an amazing sustained piece of virtuosity, creating a vivid picture of a sea-voyage through ice and snow. It was astonishing to hear the three voices swoop from a high-spaced dissonant chord to an icy cluster, without the smallest wobble or uncertainty.
Overall the evening was a delight.'
The Telegraph, August 2009
'Rarely does the Wigmore pulsate to the music of Japanese hip-hop DJs, recast for female vocal trio. Perhaps it should. Those old string quartets are all very well. But to hear these a cappella voices racing through the culture-hopping hemiolas of Stephen Hatfield's Three Ways to Vacuum Your House or James Lindsay's frenetic Sanbiki no kashikoi saru (a homage to DJ Krush, the star of Japan's drum'n'bass scene) is to be transported to a very different and very exciting universe.
The trio is called Juice. If that implies something fluid, fruity and refreshing, it is apt. Their repertoire extends from classy takes on jazz standards and dark folk songs (Sarah Dacey's Cruel Mother sent a chill up the spine) to longer pieces using avant-garde vocal techniques - patter, huffing, puffing, beatboxing - that make Stockhausen or Berio sound prehistoric.
Gabriel Prokofiev's Simple Songs for Modern Life, settings of exasperated exclamations of urban angst, was perhaps over-extended, though hypnotically patterned. But I loved Robert Fokkens's Words, which was just that: each song a surreal deconstruction of a single word, drawn from the various native languages of this young South African. The last was “sheepdip”, which triggered a hilarious fantasia of baas and bleats. Juice, who do nearly everything from memory and with perfect intonation, are the 21st century's answer to the Swingles or King's Singers - and deserve to be as famous.'
The Times on juice's Wigmore Hall debut, April 2009
'No hype, no backing band: just three women and their unaccompanied voices. But what voices, and what theatrical flair. juice... have enchanted all who have heard them since their South Bank debut last year. They are hard to pigeonhole, spanning folk, classical, avant-garde, world music and music-theatre. Bt what's striking is their virtuosity. Singing from memory, they put over even the most complex new compositions with verve. Yet they can also croon close-harmonies that melt the heart, as in their exquisite covers of Bjork and the Beach Boys.'
5 To Watch, The Times, April 2009
2008
Press for juice's Park Lane group concert at the Purcell Room, South Bank, on January 7th:
**** (4 stars)
'No doubt about the first night's stars. A female vocal trio called juice (trendy lower-case name, naturally) proved as tangy as their moniker. They have light, folky voices and a delightful manner: big smiles; music memorised so that they communicate directly. But there's nothing casual about their technical skills. They breezed through the brilliant, Berio-like vocal effects of a piece called 'luna-cy' by one of their members, Kerry Andrew, then deftly sang two exquisite carols by Nicola LeFanu. They displayed their theatre skills in six surreal melodramas from Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire'... Robert Fokkens' wittily minimalist 'Words', James Lindsay's rap-inspired 'Sanbiki no Kashikoi Saru', and two well-crafted songs by Piers Hellawell completed the contribution.'
The Times, January 2008
**** (4 stars)
'In everything they sang, especially the tricky Luna-cy (by the group's alto, Kerry Andrew), their virtuosity was never for a second in doubt.'
The Guardian, January 2008
'The three singers of Juice are each versatile and have stage-presence in abundance; collectively they are formidable. Singing most of their programme from memory – itself an achievement, the singers’ range of sounds, pitches (and the techniques required to produce them) were in themselves compelling... Kerry Andrew’s own luna-cy included a range of vocal gyrations... and there was pleasure to be had from Robert Fokkens’s phonetic virtuosity in a selection from “Words”, and James Lindsay’s “Sanbiki no Kashikoi Saru” (2003). Stagecraft and mouth-popping added to the already-surreal take on Giraud’s poetry in Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire'.. As a contrast, the limpid invention of Piers Hellawell (from “The Hilliard Songbook”) and two settings ... of medieval sacred texts by Nicola LeFanu proved spellbinding, as music and in these flawless performances.'
Classical Source online (classicalsource.com), January 2008
'They perform... with complete commitment and communication - and are utterly captivating.'
Musical Pointers (www.musicalpointers.co.uk), January 2008
2007
'a fantastic vocal group…just superb’
Tim Winter and Joshua Meggit, 'Dead or Alive' on Resonance FM, December 2007
'The singing is excellent throughout, with ... Juice more than matching the more established Hilliards and Red Byrd.'
Stephen Chase, spnm, on Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire', NMC
'The most original group in the competition'
Aamulehti (Finnish national newspaper), June 2007, on juice's second prize at the Tampere Vocal Festival.
'****'
The Guardian, May 2007, on Roger Marsh's 'Pierrot Lunaire'.
juice finished things in fine style... in an enjoyable and inventive set.'
Tim Rutherford-Jones, spnm, on juice at Gobsmack at The Spitz, March 2007
2006
"This group already has an impressive track-record of contemporary music performances, and it was obvious why. A command of blend, tone and tuning gripped the attention -- the trio's handling of the rather Delius-like harmonies in the third movement was particularly striking."
Mike Wheeler, Music and Vision, Dec 2006
'No more than three voices in a programme of unaccompanied singing, but Juice easily transported their audience to the wildest realms of vocal delight. Their selection of music ranged from their own arrangements of early liturgical pieces, some in Old French, to Macedonian Folk Songs or the music of avant-garde pop diva Björk. The three delightful performers, Kerry Andrew, Sarah Dacey and Anna Molyneux were equally at home with Negro and Native American Lullabies or the adventurous vocal experimentation of Meredith Monk. Their opening piece, Susanne Rosenberg’s 'Vallåtar från Gammelboning' ... had them hallooing to one another from different parts of the Chapel. These clean penetrating calls established the power and expertise of the three singers (gave) a taste of the adventurous and often exotic sound worlds that were to follow.;
Alan Cooper from the Herald on juice's concert at the University of Aberdeen, Oct 2006
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