birgit ulher: hochdruckzone

Birgit Ulher began her career as a visual artist, a practice which still has an important influence on her music. Since moving to Hamburg in 1982 she has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music. She works mainly on extending the sounding possibilities of the trumpet by using splitting and granular sounds and multiphonics. She is also keenly interested in the relationship between sound and silence. On Hochdruckzone she uses extended speakers, fed with radio noise in her trumpet mutes. The trumpet functions as an acoustic chamber and modulates the radio noise, thus acting simultaneously as the trans- mitter and receiver. She also uses vibrating metal sheets and the aforementioned extended techniques. The internal structure of the sounds is as important as the the structure of the piece. You can listen to the music from different angles by changing your position and perspective. Ulher performs solo, with dancers, working ensembles and one-time collaborators (including Ute Wassermann, Gino Robair, Lucio Capece, Christoph Schiller, Heddy Boubaker, Leonel Kaplan, Gregory Büttner and Nordzucker [with Lars Scherzberg, Chris Heenan and Michael Maierhof] amongst others.