Birgit Ulher: trumpet, radio, speaker, objects
Jaap Blonk: electronics, voice
- Afifwiss 06:31
- Bejal 05:18
- Ciolamir 02:44
- Dooneta 04:25
- Ebuscha 06:02
- Fanihi 07:58
- Gralinta 09:18
- Hasilyron 07:35
The Wire
Since the 1990s, Hamburg based trumpeter Birgit Ulher has been investigating ways to strip her instrument of its customary associations and make its sound distinctively her own. As well as giving the trumpet itself a thorough overhaul, she regularly lists radio, speaker and objects as auxiliary components of her kit. From the outset, collaborative projects have provided invaluable springboards for adapting and developing her own approach to performance, as well as being fruitful ends in themselves.
The title of Breezes makes a less technically mediated allusion to naturally flowing currents. Ulher, back on home turf, is heard here in the company of versatile Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk, who supplements his boisterous voice with electronics. Blonk, like Phil Minton or Ulher’s occasional associate Ute Wassermann, moves between modes of utterance with astonishing facility.
On “Dooneta” he settles for a while into familiar speech, with Ulher at first supplying punctuation, then – when Blonk veers into abstraction – allowing her trumpet to have its own say in relatively recognisable terms. Mostly, however, these eight tracks are exercises in dialogue and discovery, with almost palpable levels of close attentiveness forming a circuit between the performers, enabling each to channel their unique yet highly refined musicality.
Julian Cowley, The Wire 507