Amalgam Music presents a new release entitled “horizontal shift,” featuring the electro-acoustic trio of trumpeter Birgit Ulher (DE), vocalist Carol Genetti (USA), and instrument-inventor springboardist Eric Leonardson (USA). The CD documents a live performance of this group, recorded in 2018 at Elastic Arts in Chicago.
Despite having known each other since the late 1990s, it wasn’t until early 2018 that Ulher, Leonardson and Genetti were able to perform as a trio in Chicago. All three are seasoned performers in their own right — each bringing their distinct styles in combination, to create an improvised music whose vocabulary addresses the intrinsic textural characteristics of sound. Ulher’s extended trumpet technique, with its grainy clicks and multiphonics; Genetti’s abstract vocals with its wordless utterances; and Leonardson’s self-built “Springboard” with its bowed reverberations, all join together to explore an atmosphere of expressive relationships of sound and silence; deep resonances, subtle microtones, splitting sounds, rough textures and shimmering multiphonics.
Birgit Ulher is a Hamburg-based musician who is focused on extending the sounding possibilities of the trumpet. She has developed various techniques and preparations to produce multiphonics and a grainy, textured sound, whether holding objects in front of the horn’s bell or feeding radio noise into trumpet mutes. Ulher performs solo and in various collaborative settings in festivals and venues around the world, partnering with dancers, visual artists, composers and other free improvisers. Recent projects also include video and sound installations.
Carol Genetti is a Chicago-based vocalist whose work encompasses sound and visual art media. Her practice is grounded in free improvisation, with a desire to unlock subconscious ideas and unintended intentions. Her vocal palette is primordial, existing in a space where “language” and “music” have yet to be formulated into familiar cultural patterns. She has performed with many improvising musicians, including Jack Wright, Jon Mueller, Claire Rousay, Peter Maunu, Olivia Block, Ulher, Leonardson, and many others. Most recent recordings include a duet with Claire Rousay “Live at Elastic Arts” (Astral Spirits) and a collaborative release with visual artist Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson “Chyme” (Suppedaneum).
Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, serves as President of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and President of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. He is Associate Professor Adjunct in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). As a performer, composer, and sound designer, Leonardson created sound with the Chicago based physical theater company Plasticene (1995-2012). Leonardson performs internationally with the Springboard, a self-built electro-acoustic instrument that he created in 1994; and he also often presents interactive events involving acoustic ecology to new audiences beyond art world contexts; engaging and connecting communities in the interrelated aspects of sound, listening, and environment.
Visit Amalgam Music to listen and order the CD and download, and see Ulher, Leonardson and Genetti perform live again on Thursday, April 20, at Constellation in Chicago