Birgit Ulher & Nicolas Collins

The concisely named project !Trumpet + Trumpet! will bring together experienced improvisers Birgit Ulher and Nicolas Collins. Since the 1980s, the former has been exploring new possibilities of trumpet sound through extended techniques, preparation and electronics. At the same time, her approach reflects her artistic training, and her oeuvre includes video and sound installations. She has performed with a number of prominent figures in the European and global improvisation scene, and regularly appears at festivals, especially in the German-speaking cultural area. Nicolas Collins is the author of the well-known handbook for DIY electronic instrument enthusiasts, Handmade Electronic Music - The Art of Hardware Hacking, and his approach to trumpet is telling of this background, incorporating a built-in speaker, valve position sensors, breath control and an "infrared-equipped toilet plunger" (whatever that means). Let's give the floor to Collins: "In homage to David Tudor's legendary Bandoneon!, I named this instrument '!trumpet'. But whereas for Tudor the exclamation mark was a sign for the factorial, I use its logical meaning of negation: this is definitely not a trumpet." In this joint performance we can look forward to a collision of two personalities who are not afraid to go to extremes, whether precisely controlled or joyously chaotic.

(Photo: Wolfgang Scheerer)