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Essential Monk

Her vocal music is redolent of Hildegard von Bingen, performance artist Laurie Anderson and Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins, all rolled into one. Her piano music contains the meditative repetitions, loops and pulsations of minimalism, while her chamber music reveals striking dissonances and unusual instrumentation. Her musical roots lie in folk and rock music, whose idioms subtly infiltrate her oeuvre. One of America's coolest composers, Meredith Monk defies categorisation.

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Her pioneering interest in the range and capabilities of the human voice led her to develop what is now called "extended vocal technique", which uses the voice as an instrument rather than the conveyor of words, and gives her music a universality which makes it sound both arcane and contemporary. She combines Medieval plainchant and oriental melodies with drones, wordless incantations, ululations and chattering murmurs. It's direct yet lyrical, accessible yet otherworldly, serene yet challenging. Essentially tonal, her wordless music is powerfully communicative, arresting and transporting. As a cross-disciplinary artist who uses music, dance, film and performance, Monk has always taken on themes that can't always be expressed but can be suggested through her work. Her distinctive music is just one fascinating facet of a much greater whole.