Circlesongs is a 1997 studio album by American vocalist Bobby McFerrin, released by Sony Classical.
In 2018, McFerrin toured with his ensemble the Voicestra, performing material from Circlesongs, as well as improvisational works with audience improvisation encouraged.[2]
The music on the album is performed by "circle singing", an improvisational technique created by McFerrin in 1986.[3] In circle singing, a leader in a circle of singers directs one sub-group in the circle to sing an improvised musical part, and then the leader improvises another part for another sub-group to sing overlayed onto the first part, and so on until the whole circle is singing different improvised parts. The song evolves as the leader changes the improvisation for different groups.[4]
Voicetra (Nicolas Bearde, Joey Blake, Pierre Cook, Sussan Deyhim, Kirsten Falke, Paul Hillier, Raz Kennedy, Beth Quist, Rhiannon, Janis Siegel, Pamela Warrick Smith and David Worm) – vocal ensemble
Production
Linda Goldstein – producer
Chris Tergesen – engineer, mixing
Tony Black – assistant engineer
Greg Pinto – assistant engineer
Greg Thompson – assistant engineer
George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York, NY)