The long-standing duo of trumpeter Birgit Uhler, also on radio, speaker & objects, and free improvising vocalist Ute Wasserman, in an album of 8 unbelievable improvisations of a unique and sometimes bizarre character, holding one's attention from its outlandish nature--superb!
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2015 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at A Red Room, Hamburg, Germany, on Feb 2nd, 2012, by Boris Vogeler.
"The cover of this release is quite interesting: it looks like a field with trees in the far distance, but the more I look at this, these trees might also be sound waves, from a picture of a computer screen. It is a fascinating picture and I am trying to think of this in terms of the music; either a representation of the music as recorded or a score to play.
Birgit Ulher plays trumpet, radio, speaker and objects, and we know her from her previous works in the field of improvised music. She has been playing with Ute Wassermann (voice, bird whistles) for a very long time. Back in Vital Weekly 453 (which might have been from 2004) I reviewed Kunststoff, which I found a bit long (one hour) and too limited in what these women had to offer, variation-wise. I believe Ulher played mostly trumpet back then; the extended set-up she uses these days adds more variation to her playing and these days I am quite a fan of her work.
This new work doesn't disappoint either. Like on that previous release, Wassermann's voice is about an imitation of what Ulher does with her trumpet and other sounds, but her voice opens up a whole world of possibilities of her own, with those bird whistles. These eight pieces (forty-five minutes) are quite intense in approach. There seems always something going on, even when it's nearly silent. One can do nothing else but listen closely to this music and be sucked into the sound world of these two musicians. Open up your ears and mind and something beautiful will unfold. At forty-five minutes I would think this is also the right length. More would not be good, less also doesn't seem right. Excellent work."-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly