BIOGRAPHY
Photographer: Ali Asperheim
Casey Moir is an Australian born vocal-artist, improviser, and composer of experimental music, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Her artistic practice is centered around the extended capabilities of the voice. She enjoys testing and pushing conventional boundaries, exploring how vowels and consonants can be formed, distorted, and manipulated, and how sounds can be shaped and moulded using the tongue, lips, glottis and hands. She combines these somewhat unconventional aspects with other musical aspects such as form, direction, overall shape, structure and movement. She is also keenly interested in the concept of space and room and how these can be investigated in performance, improvisation and composition. This has her composing larger scale works that use a whole room as the scene and that can have musicians and/or audience being ambulatory, changing directions, trajectories and proximities to things, sounds and others.
Casey graduated from The Australian National University in Canberra with her Bachelor of Music Performance, majoring on voice, in 2005. Since moving to Sweden in 2007 she has also completed a Bachelor of Improvisation (2011), and a Master of Experimental Composition (2021), at the Academy of Music and Drama, in Gothenburg.
After graduating in 2011 she travelled south to Australia again for a year to perform with other musicians and bands, performing often with her solo acoustic improvisation project Naked, as well as with alternative pop duo Mother Jack. The latter of these bands won the Best Up-and-coming-band at the 2012 Melbourne Fresh Competition. In July 2012 she returned again to her home in Sweden.
She is a member of and most often composer and bandleader for several different constellations such as CLEC, Naked and IGNITE. She has previously been a member of groups such as SVELIA (Australian/Swedish quintet), Johan Moir Ensemble and MOCO (piano/voice improvisation duo). She is also a composer of new music, with her list of compositions including 'Rotations and Slides' for solo percussion, 'Outside In' for 4 voices, electronics and 12 speakers and 'Fluctuations' for solo voice and effect pedals, as well as 'Gertrude - This Happened' for vocal ensemble, props and objects, amongst others.
She has performed at various festivals and venues in Australia, Sweden and Europe such as Umeå Jazz Festival (SE), Luleå Blues Festival (SE), CTM Festival (DE), Sound of Stockholm Festival (SE), Fasching Jazz Club (SE), Nefertiti Jazz Club (SE), Glenn Miller Café (SE), Jazz I Malmö (SE), Make It Up Club Melbourne (AUS), Bennetts Lane Jazz Club (AU), NIMA (AU), Philly Joe's Jazz Bar (EE), Jöhvi Concert Hall (EE), Horns Erben Jazz Club Leipzig (DE), Alchemia Krakow (PL), Nasjonal Jazzscene (NO), Festival Tricollectif (FR), the Now Now Festival (AU), SoundOut Festival (AU), Bucareli House of Arts (MX), MU Teater (HU), Audible Edge Festival (AU) and more.
She has performed with artists from around the world such as Emilio Gordoa (MX), Chris Heenan (US), Nina De Heney (SE), Adam Pultz Melbye (DK), Burkhard Beins (DE), Axel Dörner (DE), Naoko Sakata (JP), Henrik Olsson (SE) and Isabelle Duthoit (FR), written works for ensembles such as Curious Chamber Players, and performed with contemporary ensemble Mimitabu.
In January 2013 she released her debut album ‘MOCO’ together with pianist Naoko Sakata on the Swedish record label LJUP. In September 2012 she recorded her debut EP 'Presents.....' with her alternative pop duo Mother Jack. The EP release was celebrated as part of the premier for HearHere Festival in Gothenburg August 2013. Together with her quartet Casey Moir Band, she was chosen to represent Sweden at the Young Nordic Jazz Comets showcase in Trondheim, 2013.
In March 2013 she embarked on a European tour in Sweden, Germany and Poland with the Australian/Swedish project SVELIA. Recorded tracks from their concert at Alchemia in Karkow, Poland were released in conjunction with their Australian tour in January 2014. SVELIA also hit the studio to record their first studio album 'Transitions', thanks to the support of the Australian Governments New Work grant.
December 2014, she released the single and music video ' LOST' with Mother Jack. In 2015, she released the album 'Rabbit Hole' with Casey Moir Band, 'Transitions' on Losen Records with SVELIA, 'Shout until our lungs are blue' with Mother Jack and she appeared on Johan Moir Ensembles debut album 'Chasing Shadows'. She also appears on both Été Large albums 'Eudaimonia' (2017) and 'When the Birds Upraise Their Choir' (2020). AWith these release she has toured in Europe and for some, also in Australia.
She was featured in a 5 page spread in Sweden's oldest and well respected magazine OrkesterJournalen and performed live on Swedish National Radio, performed with the Gothenburg Dance Company installation Surburbia 37° and received rave reviews from many a magazine and music blog and/or newspaper. See Reviews for links to articles and press.
In 2016 Casey moved to Berlin to delve deeper into free improvisation and the extended possibilities of the voice. She started several new projects there, including CLEC and IGNITE amongst others. A planned 6month stay turned into 18months. She was very active on the scene, playing regularly both with her solo and other new projects, as well as in ad-hoc constellations together with local and visiting international artists. She toured in Poland and Austria on several occasions, as well as playing concerts in France, Germany and Hungary before moving back to Stockholm in late 2017.
Since then, she has continued to tour and play concerts internationally as well as establishing herself on the local scene. In the beginning of 2018, she released a live album with her duo IGNITE before embarking on a Taiwan and Australian tour. She followed this up with a release-tour in Germany with the 13-piece ensemble Eté Large, in which she is still actively involved in and tours regularly with. She has been a member of the board of FRIM (the association of free improvised music) and has sat on the programming group for Sound of Stockholm. In the summer of 2018 she started HearHere Walks in the suburbs, with these soundwalks taking listeners on a discovery of sounds in the local areas. These walks have also drawn the attention of local newspapers such as Mitti and Skärholmen Direkt who have both done articles on the soundwalks. She has an irregular concert series at Larrys Corner, inviting visiting international to collaborate with local improvisers and musicians in short ad-hoc constellations, thoughtfully put together by her. She is also artist director for and member of the newly startad Viva Vocal Ensemble, playing newly composed and experimental vocal music that take a closer look at voice, body, space and movement in performance.
Her artistic practice is centered around the extended capabilities of the voice. She enjoys testing and pushing conventional boundaries, exploring how vowels and consonants can be formed, distorted, and manipulated, and how sounds can be shaped and moulded using the tongue, lips, glottis and hands. She combines these somewhat unconventional aspects with other musical aspects such as form, direction, overall shape, structure and movement. She is also keenly interested in the concept of space and room and how these can be investigated in performance, improvisation and composition. This has her composing larger scale works that use a whole room as the scene and that can have musicians and/or audience being ambulatory, changing directions, trajectories and proximities to things, sounds and others.
Casey graduated from The Australian National University in Canberra with her Bachelor of Music Performance, majoring on voice, in 2005. Since moving to Sweden in 2007 she has also completed a Bachelor of Improvisation (2011), and a Master of Experimental Composition (2021), at the Academy of Music and Drama, in Gothenburg.
After graduating in 2011 she travelled south to Australia again for a year to perform with other musicians and bands, performing often with her solo acoustic improvisation project Naked, as well as with alternative pop duo Mother Jack. The latter of these bands won the Best Up-and-coming-band at the 2012 Melbourne Fresh Competition. In July 2012 she returned again to her home in Sweden.
She is a member of and most often composer and bandleader for several different constellations such as CLEC, Naked and IGNITE. She has previously been a member of groups such as SVELIA (Australian/Swedish quintet), Johan Moir Ensemble and MOCO (piano/voice improvisation duo). She is also a composer of new music, with her list of compositions including 'Rotations and Slides' for solo percussion, 'Outside In' for 4 voices, electronics and 12 speakers and 'Fluctuations' for solo voice and effect pedals, as well as 'Gertrude - This Happened' for vocal ensemble, props and objects, amongst others.
She has performed at various festivals and venues in Australia, Sweden and Europe such as Umeå Jazz Festival (SE), Luleå Blues Festival (SE), CTM Festival (DE), Sound of Stockholm Festival (SE), Fasching Jazz Club (SE), Nefertiti Jazz Club (SE), Glenn Miller Café (SE), Jazz I Malmö (SE), Make It Up Club Melbourne (AUS), Bennetts Lane Jazz Club (AU), NIMA (AU), Philly Joe's Jazz Bar (EE), Jöhvi Concert Hall (EE), Horns Erben Jazz Club Leipzig (DE), Alchemia Krakow (PL), Nasjonal Jazzscene (NO), Festival Tricollectif (FR), the Now Now Festival (AU), SoundOut Festival (AU), Bucareli House of Arts (MX), MU Teater (HU), Audible Edge Festival (AU) and more.
She has performed with artists from around the world such as Emilio Gordoa (MX), Chris Heenan (US), Nina De Heney (SE), Adam Pultz Melbye (DK), Burkhard Beins (DE), Axel Dörner (DE), Naoko Sakata (JP), Henrik Olsson (SE) and Isabelle Duthoit (FR), written works for ensembles such as Curious Chamber Players, and performed with contemporary ensemble Mimitabu.
In January 2013 she released her debut album ‘MOCO’ together with pianist Naoko Sakata on the Swedish record label LJUP. In September 2012 she recorded her debut EP 'Presents.....' with her alternative pop duo Mother Jack. The EP release was celebrated as part of the premier for HearHere Festival in Gothenburg August 2013. Together with her quartet Casey Moir Band, she was chosen to represent Sweden at the Young Nordic Jazz Comets showcase in Trondheim, 2013.
In March 2013 she embarked on a European tour in Sweden, Germany and Poland with the Australian/Swedish project SVELIA. Recorded tracks from their concert at Alchemia in Karkow, Poland were released in conjunction with their Australian tour in January 2014. SVELIA also hit the studio to record their first studio album 'Transitions', thanks to the support of the Australian Governments New Work grant.
December 2014, she released the single and music video ' LOST' with Mother Jack. In 2015, she released the album 'Rabbit Hole' with Casey Moir Band, 'Transitions' on Losen Records with SVELIA, 'Shout until our lungs are blue' with Mother Jack and she appeared on Johan Moir Ensembles debut album 'Chasing Shadows'. She also appears on both Été Large albums 'Eudaimonia' (2017) and 'When the Birds Upraise Their Choir' (2020). AWith these release she has toured in Europe and for some, also in Australia.
She was featured in a 5 page spread in Sweden's oldest and well respected magazine OrkesterJournalen and performed live on Swedish National Radio, performed with the Gothenburg Dance Company installation Surburbia 37° and received rave reviews from many a magazine and music blog and/or newspaper. See Reviews for links to articles and press.
In 2016 Casey moved to Berlin to delve deeper into free improvisation and the extended possibilities of the voice. She started several new projects there, including CLEC and IGNITE amongst others. A planned 6month stay turned into 18months. She was very active on the scene, playing regularly both with her solo and other new projects, as well as in ad-hoc constellations together with local and visiting international artists. She toured in Poland and Austria on several occasions, as well as playing concerts in France, Germany and Hungary before moving back to Stockholm in late 2017.
Since then, she has continued to tour and play concerts internationally as well as establishing herself on the local scene. In the beginning of 2018, she released a live album with her duo IGNITE before embarking on a Taiwan and Australian tour. She followed this up with a release-tour in Germany with the 13-piece ensemble Eté Large, in which she is still actively involved in and tours regularly with. She has been a member of the board of FRIM (the association of free improvised music) and has sat on the programming group for Sound of Stockholm. In the summer of 2018 she started HearHere Walks in the suburbs, with these soundwalks taking listeners on a discovery of sounds in the local areas. These walks have also drawn the attention of local newspapers such as Mitti and Skärholmen Direkt who have both done articles on the soundwalks. She has an irregular concert series at Larrys Corner, inviting visiting international to collaborate with local improvisers and musicians in short ad-hoc constellations, thoughtfully put together by her. She is also artist director for and member of the newly startad Viva Vocal Ensemble, playing newly composed and experimental vocal music that take a closer look at voice, body, space and movement in performance.