Laurie Amat

Laurie Amat uses a combination of pure vocal improvisation and electronic looping to expand the definition and purpose of "experimental" music by returning to the roots of visceral, sensual and emotional expression. Depending on the moment, she creates angelic choirs or brutal machines. Constantly crossing and creating genres, she reaches into embodied history, uses the voice to transcend cold technique and sing the soul, the spirit, and the human experience.

For over 20 years vocalist/improviser Laurie Amat has been cultivating and expanding her use of the full vocal instrument in genres ranging from traditional opera to radical extended acoustic vocal technique in spaces such as theaters, cathedrals and monasteries; bunkers, cisterns and highway underpasses. She explores the broad possibilities of pure voice, breath and body as an instrument to convey a direct expression of visceral human emotions in live performance, recording and multimedia, also breaking additional boundaries with her use of electronics, creating sounds from angelic choirs to brutal industrial pieces.Her previous collaborations include her work with the late computer music pioneer Max Mathews, The Residents, Consolidated, keyboardist Mirek Vodražka, composer Pavla Slaba (Zuby Nehty), and Alex Swamberk (TonTon Macoutes).
Ms. Amat is a resident and member of Providence, Rhode Island artist-run organization AS220. She recently returned from her second European International Looping Festival Tour with performances in France, Italy and Switzerland and which was highlighted by a 5 day collaborative residency in Chauvigny, FR with Emmanuel Reveneau (Lucid Brain Integrative Project). Present collaborations include her work with Emmanuel as the duo "Shores of Latency", Drone specialist Dave Seidel as "Palimpsest", Sound and Video creator Adam Morovsky (TimeGhost), Bergen based multi-instrumentalist/Looper Ole Christiansen (Sonisk Blodbad) and Clive Jones (Black Widow/Agony Bag).
Her present and upcoming projects include the Y2K14 International Loopfest (Santa Cruz, CA), the premiere of the multi-media disaster architecture piece DOMUS (Los Angeles, CA) and experimental resonant space and electronic, recording and performance in Bergen, Norway with Ole, Kristian Stangebye and Haavard Tveito.