Voice

Voice emerged from Edmonton’s early-1980s electronic underground, growing directly out of the final period of Office. When Office came apart in late 1982, Malcolm Swann and Jeff Sawatzky joined keyboardist Dwayne Goettel and drummer Sherri Leigh Iwaschuk to form a new group built around synthesizers, programmed rhythms, live percussion and a more serious, atmospheric approach to songwriting.

The original lineup featured Malcolm Swann on lead vocals, Dwayne Goettel on keyboards and drum programming, Sherri Leigh Iwaschuk on drums, percussion and vocals, and Jeff Sawatzky on bass. Their music combined melodic synthpop with post-punk tension, moving between tightly programmed electronic arrangements and the immediacy of a live band. Swann’s expressive vocals stood at the centre, supported by Goettel’s emerging electronic language, Iwaschuk’s percussion and Sawatzky’s bass work.

Their earliest material circulated on a limited 1983 cassette containing ‘Holiday,’ ‘Smile’ and an alternate version of ‘Lime.’ Other surviving recordings include ‘Birthright’ and ‘Dangerous to Be Different,’ along with live performances preserved from Edmonton’s Primetime club. These early tapes document Voice before Sawatzky’s departure and reveal the group at its rawest, with minimalist analogue electronics, programmed rhythms and arrangements still developing through performance.

Archival material preserved by Sawatzky includes two 1983 live tapes, Primetime and Primetime Again, documenting the original lineup performing at the Primetime club alongside Edmonton contemporaries such as Darkroom. The recordings capture an adventurous period in which the band’s electronic framework remained loose enough to accommodate experimentation, extended arrangements and the unpredictable energy of live performance.

The early incarnation of Voice also documented an important stage in Dwayne Goettel’s development as an electronic musician. His keyboards and programming were already central to the group’s sound before his later work with Psyche and Skinny Puppy. The surviving Voice recordings reveal a melodic and comparatively restrained side of his early work, shaped around Swann’s vocal performances and the interaction between electronics and live percussion.

Following Sawatzky’s departure, Voice developed into a five-piece featuring Swann, Goettel and Iwaschuk with Rod Wolfe on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Bill Damur on guitars, lute and vocals. The expanded instrumentation brought a broader harmonic range and stronger compositional focus, adding guitar, bass and lute to the group’s electronic foundation.

Damur later recalled co-writing much of the group’s subsequent material and naming its sole vinyl release Anno Di Voce, meaning “The Year of Voice.” After a period of false starts, delays and fundraising efforts, the four-song 12-inch EP was recorded at Zone 5 in February 1985 and issued later that year through Switch Records as SWH-649.

The record featured ‘Lime,’ ‘Business As Usual in Beirut,’ ‘Wake Up Dreaming’ and ‘I Am the Walrus.’ ‘Lime’ and ‘Wake Up Dreaming’ were written by Malcolm Swann and Dwayne Goettel, while ‘Business As Usual in Beirut’ was written by Bill Damur and Rod Wolfe. The final selection was Voice’s electronic interpretation of the Lennon and McCartney composition ‘I Am the Walrus.’

The four tracks presented different sides of the band. ‘Lime’ paired a melodic vocal performance with tightly controlled electronics, while ‘Wake Up Dreaming’ emphasized the atmospheric quality of Swann and Goettel’s writing. ‘Business As Usual in Beirut’ brought Damur and Wolfe’s compositional partnership to the foreground, and ‘I Am the Walrus’ recast a familiar psychedelic song through the group’s mid-1980s electronic arrangements.

Dave Findlay and Malcolm Swann produced the EP, with Findlay also serving as engineer. The sleeve featured cover artwork by Dennis Presiloski, band photography by Dwayne Brown, production management by Danny McGee, and typesetting by Typographics Ltd. and Hunky Dory Enterprises Ltd. Its fingerprint-inspired design gave the release a distinctive visual identity that matched the group’s combination of human emotion and electronic precision.

Although Anno Di Voce received only limited circulation, it has since become a cult artifact, particularly among listeners interested in Edmonton’s early electronic scene and the formative work of Dwayne Goettel. Collectors value the record for its clean production and unusual balance of pop accessibility, electronic precision and darker atmospheric tension.

Voice disbanded in 1986, after which the members followed different musical paths. Swann continued performing and preserving material connected with the group. Damur became an educator and multi-instrumentalist at the Alberta College Conservatory of Music and later recorded with The Tsunami Brothers and The GeoMetrics. Goettel’s later work with Psyche, Skinny Puppy, Hilt and other projects brought renewed attention to Voice and its place in Edmonton’s electronic music history.

Goettel’s later acclaim has inevitably drawn listeners back to these early recordings, but Voice deserves recognition on its own terms. The group combined melodic songwriting, live percussion, synthesizers, programmed rhythms and experimental arrangement at a time when Edmonton’s electronic and post-punk communities were still taking shape.

Voice left behind only one commercially released EP, a limited cassette, and a small archive of live and unreleased recordings, yet those recordings document a distinctive period in Western Canadian electronic music. They connect Edmonton’s early-1980s art-rock and post-punk scenes with the darker electronic music that would emerge from the city later in the decade.

Malcolm Swann died on July 9, 2026, at the age of 65. His work with Office and Voice remains central to both groups’ surviving recordings, joining theatrical performance, melodic songwriting and electronic experimentation with a voice that was immediately recognizable.

-Robert Williston