Birgit Ulher & Jaap Blonk

Birgit Ulher lives as a freelance musician, sound artist and composer in Hamburg. After studying visual arts, she developed her own playing techniques and preparations with trumpet, radio, loudspeakers and objects. Her work includes acoustic and electro-acoustic projects, solo performances, concert and sound installations, videos, concept pieces and concerts in the field of improvised/experimental music. She has received numerous grants and travels internationally with her concert activities.

Jaap Blonk is a vocalist, composer, poet and visual artist. He studied mathematics and musicology. In the early 1980s he discovered the power and flexibility of his voice and began a long-term research into the phonetics and possibilities of the human voice. He has developed into a specialist in creating and performing sound poetry and is a unique vocal improviser, supported by a powerful and uninhibited stage. Over the years he has developed a similar flexibility with live electronics as he does with his voice. In the meantime, 30 CDs have been released with his own label Kontrans and a dozen books with his visual work have also been published in various countries.