Birgit Ulher & Jaap Blonk

An exciting new duo! Two improvisers who tirelessly push the limits of their instruments and have a wide range of advanced techniques, preparations and electronics at their disposal.

Birgit Ulher - trumpet, radio, loudspeakers, objects
Jaap Blonk - voice, electronics



(Photo: Gero Sander)

Birgit Ulher lives as a freelance musician, sound artist and composer in Hamburg. After her studies in the field of visual arts, she developed her own playing techniques and preparations with trumpet, radio, loudspeakers and objects. Her work includes acoustic and electroacoustic 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.

https://birgit-ulher.de/

Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Netherlands) is a self-taught composer, vocalist, poet and visual artist. His unfinished studies in mathematics and musicology mainly created a penchant for activities in a Dada vein, as did several unsuccessful jobs in offices and other well-organized systems.
In the early 1980s he discovered the power and flexibility of his voice, and set out on a long-term research of phonetics and the possibilities of the human voice.
At present, he has developed into a specialist in the creation and performance of sound poetry and a unique vocal improviser, supported by a powerful and uninhibited stage presence. He performs and gives workshops worldwide on a regular basis. Over the years, with live electronics he developed a similar agility as with his voice.
To this date Blonk’s music has appeared on 30 CDs with his own Kontrans label; many other recordings as well as about a dozen books with his visual work have been published in several countries.