Echoes of Home

The voice is the most direct expression of the human being, his feelings, and the wonderful fact that he exists. Echoes of Home is a film about this most primal of all instruments. At the center of the film are extraordinary musicians from the Swiss and Austrian Alps, whose cosmos of sound extends far beyond what is usually termed song. They come from the widest variety of backgrounds and lifestyles, but what they all have in common is their free, unconventional approach to nonverbal singing: they jubilate, yodel, whine, warble, and hum, they use their bodies as resonating cavities for the spontaneous expression of their feelings. The spectrum of protagonists ranges from a performance artist to a man who sings in village taverns. The film encounters these people in their respective realms of life, leads us to the sources of their inspiration, and allows us to discover the reasons for their nonconformity, for their sense of and passion for the melodic quality of the human voice, and for the unsuspected exoticism of the songs of the alpine countries. —Berlinale