audrey chen & wouter jaspers: brombron 22 root & branch

Korm Plastics is proud to present the twenty-second release in the Brombron series (missing numbers will follow later this year). Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize. Wouter Jaspers and Audrey Chan are perfect examples of what Brombron is about. They met before and played a couple of concerts, both in the USA and in Europe and wished to document their work in the form of studio recordings, but their busy schedules somehow prevented that. In Jaunuary 2010 they embarked in the studio of Extrapool to work on their powerful blend of voice, cello and electronics, using their own equipment as well as some of the studio's blend of analogue synthesizers. This resulted in two excellent concerts at the end of the week and now 'Roots & Branches', the twenty-second CD in the well aclaimed Brombron series. Combining improvised playing to generate sound material, this work is unmistakenbly a work of using studio techniques to make a rich, vibrant work of improvised and electronic music. Audrey Chen is a Chinese-American cello player and vocalist who studied at the Conservatory for both instruments but radically changed in 2003 to improvised music, adding analog electronics. Chen’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of a homemade analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language. She has played with both solo as well as with others such as Phil Minton, Jerome Noetinger, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, and many others. She currently lives in Berlin. Wouter Jaspers (Deurne, 1986) is a experimental composer, soundartist and musician from Tilburg, The Netherlands, who currently lives in Berlin, Germany. Wouter Jaspers creates dark repetitive music, psychedelic soundart combined with electro-acoustic elements and fieldrecordings. He has no specific instrument he plays, but mostly performs with electro-magnetic waves, analog synthesizers and modified electric guitars. Besides his solo project Franz Fjödor, he also performs together with Audrey Chen, Sten Ove Toft, Steffan de Turck, Tom Smith, Jos Smolders and many others. Between 2007 and the end of 2010 he played over 400 performances over the globe and is considered the most active Dutch experimental musician around. In 2011 he launced KOMA Elektronik, building Analog Audio Effect Equipment