The human voice (Isilda Sanches | Antena 3)

Eye in the sky, Isilda Sanches © Rita Draper Frazão

Radio Series

In the begining of this year, I started a new challenge for my blog. It's something I had in mind for years! The project is about my favorite Radio Hosts, and I called it Radio Series.

These consist in articles and drawings about each one of them.

Today the sky has Venus and Jupiter aligned. (Something that happens just once a year!) Along with it, I can finally share with you my visit to Isilda Sanches, in Antena 3 Radio. May you enjoy this, as much as I did, doing it!

Life Frequencies 

Antena 3 is the national radio dedicated to alternative music, rock, pop and Portuguese Music. 
Isilda Sanches is the hostess of the radio show Muitos Mundos and also the author of the rubric, Fricção Científica. She can be, also, heard live every morning, from Monday to Friday.

Before she joined forces at Antena 3, in 2015, she was on the wheel of Radio Oxigénio for sixteen years, where she, basically, helped to shape, change and give voice to the electronic music panorama in Portugal. Things were never the same again. For the better. 
I started listening to her in the very beginning of that radio, until now.

Previously, she made part of the golden team that built, the already extinct, X FM Radio (1993-1997), in Lisbon.

Radio Series started because I once had the dream to draw her. You can find out, next, why my fascination never ceased.

  The Human Voice 

Messages from the sky, Isilda Sanches © Rita Draper Frazão

Voice is sound, and sound resonates in the human body and emotions. One's body and mind can react to a voice, as it reacts to a certain music. 

This is a scientific area of research and study, such as in the book - The Evolution of Emotional Communication: From Sounds in Nonhuman Mammals to Speech and Music in Man (Series in Affective Science).

I guess, if you have ever heard or met someone, whose voice you love or empathize with, you'll be familiar with this concept, too. 

But, there's a difference between loving a voice, and empathize with one, in a way that, one feels that is therapeutical.  If you, while listening to a person, ever had a unique feeling - something soothing to your soul, right at that moment - that you can't get elsewhere, you'll know what I'm talking about.

There are many voices I love, but there are very few people, that I can point out as being therapeutic to me.  Isilda Sanches' voice is one of them. But this isn't just about how her voice sounds like.

The title from the portrait above, was taken from the RAH band tune (Messages from the stars). I had in mind part of its lyrics:

(...) You must be from another galaxy

When I'm out there all alone

And feeling far from home

I'm fading into blue

And there's nothing I can do

Then out on the sky like a flash

Sending me high, high

You rescue me

You saved me from a certain tragedy

In the drawing, soap bubbles and stars allude to the Universe, Rhythm, Dreaming and Experimenting (and hence the primary colors, that give birth to all others). The color spots, out of the drawing lines, materialize what makes her unique: being different and out of the box, out of format.

Plat du jour

Isilda Sanches during an interview with Sallim

I believe that in communication, empathy is key, to properly deliver messages. One thing I have always admired in Isilda is, not only her tone of voice, what she says, how she says it, but also, her incredible ability to relate, to empathize, and make others feel at home, and welcomed - guests she interviews, or listeners. As if all became part of the furniture of her living room.

In a very graceful way, she's the type of communicator that, while in a conversation, can make one share valuable information, seemingly, without any effort.

A sense of belonging and a feeling that everything is ok is often present and is remarkable, bearing in mind, the variety of subjects, music, and people she covers. (and the bad days everybody has, including her!)

I get the feeling she's more of herself, when she's in a dialogue of ideas with someone.  

Could be an explanation to why she does it so naturally, and in such a humble, and human way. Being a social animal, she is also shy and very observant, analytical of others, and of daily life. 

In fact, I find in her, something that turns everyday routine so much less boring and predictable. (That certain tragedy from the lyrics!)  Be it a groove, a funny story, a music history chapter, or something else she offers as a Plat du Jour (today's special from Herbert) with love. 

Science Explains

All these notions of the voice tone, speech, empathy, safety and communication relate to prosody, a concept very important in areas such as in writing music lyrics (and singing them), Acting, Psychology, Communication, Linguistics, Otolaryngology, Speech Therapy or Neuroscience.

And, yes, all this had in mind, Isilda's scientific love affair  (that one can follow through Fricção Científica). I couldn't fail to mention here some examples of scientific studies, that talk about prosody and its importance in communication. Have fun digging them here, here, and here!

The curious thing, is that I can correlate her interest in science, avant-guard discoveries, sci-fi, and weird things in her music selections. Things for collectors, music geeks, things nobody heard yet, things that will be the future and are now ahead of its time, things that are so rare and hard to find, nobody heard about it; what will be the next big thing, absolute classics, psychedelic stuff, things that make you happy, smile and dance - she'll find all that and more!!

Cosmic Alignment

Eye in the sky, Isilda Sanches © Rita Draper Frazão

The high consideration I have for Isilda Sanches, meant extra dedication. That required, as you saw above, researching scientific stuff, learning to draw, in real time, with something I had never tried before (a ruling pen), and also carefully choose the date to publish this article.  According to astrology, it is the luckiest and most loving day of the year.

This drawing, is the one I consider my main Isilda Portrait, and was the last one to be done. I drew the outline with the ruling pen (that I know that is very meaningful for her), while she was passing I wanna be adored, by Stone Roses. Also a favorite of mine.

The rose is obviously a reference to the group, but it's there, also, to symbolize her sensibility and the beauty and life she brings, as flowers do. I chose to do it in a collage from a magazine, in a reference to the press.

Hands to me, mean gestures, communication, and communion - things that I feel are some of her greatest assets. The beauty of her hands match her delicacy and refinement. 

And what would an article about Isilda Sanches be, without a mention to the writer Philip K. Dick? I couldn't allow that, so in homage to her sci-fi love, I named this portrait of hers, after a title of one of his books, Eye in the sky. 

The black thin lines lead to a star. Don't we all have a lucky one? In my drawing, it also refers to faith in the Universe, in higher beings, in rebirths, in lucky stars. 

As within many science fiction stories, I guess choosing the risky unknown makes part of her matrix. And that is why I look up to her so much!