Ute Wassermann (born 1960) is a German vocalist, composer and sound artist. Speakeasy_10

Biography

Ute Wassermann studied fine arts focusing on sound installations and performance at the

University of Fine Arts of Hamburg The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...

. Among her teachers were

Henning Christiansen Henning Christiansen (28 May 1932 in Copenhagen – 10 December 2008) was a Danish composer and an active member of the Fluxus-movement. He worked with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Bazon Brock and Wolf Vostell as well as with his w ...

and

Allan Kaprow Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as ...

. She continued her studies in fine arts, music and singing at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. She was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 1993–94 and at Civitella Ranieri in Italy in 2015.

Work

Ute Wassermann has developed her own unique vocal techniques. She explores them in different forms such as voice performances, compositions, improvisations and installations. The human voice is extended in many different ways in her work and often plays with all kinds of other sound connotations. This also results in an extensive use of bird whistles, different kinds of resonating objects and prepared loudspeakers. She is one of the founding members of the artists collective Les Femmes Savantes Other members of this Composer-Performer-Ensemble are Sabine Ercklentz, Andrea Neumann and Ana Maria Rodriguez. She also performs with Richard Scott and Emilio Gordoa in parak.eets and with her quartet ''speak easy'' (with Phil Minton,

Thomas Lehn Thomas Lehn (born 1958 in Fröndenberg) is a German piano and synthesizer player active in free improvisation and contemporary music. Lehn has recorded with Marcus Schmickler, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Phil Minton, Phil Durrant, Radu Malfatt ...

and Martin Blume)She also often plays as an Improvisationsduo with, for example,

Aleksander Kolkowski Aleksander Kolkowski (born 1959 in London) is a British musician and composer whose work combines instruments and machines from the pioneering era of sound recording and reproduction (Stroh violins, wind-up Gramophones, shellac discs and wax-ph ...

, Rhodrie Davies, Joke Lanz, Birgit Ulher, Els Vandeweyer, Charlotte Hug, Richard Barrett und John Russel. Ute Wassermann also performs compositions by others. She has interpreted works by

Chaya Czernowin Chaya Czernowin (Hebrew: חיה צ'רנובין, ; born December 7, 1957) is an Israeli American composer, and Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University. She is the lead composer at the Schloß Solitude Sommerakademie, a biannu ...

, Hans Joachim Hespos,

Salvatore Sciarrino Salvatore Sciarrino (born 4 April 1947) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Described as "the best-known and most performed Italian composer" of the present day, his works include ''Quaderno di strada'' (2003) and ''La porta d ...

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

Simon Steen-Andersen Simon Steen-Andersen (born 1976) is a Danish composer, performer, director and media artist. Biography He studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde, and Bent Sørensen in Aarhus, Freiburg, Buenos Aires ...

, Matthias Kaul, Cathy van Eck, und Richard Barrett.''sound anatomy website''
English biography of Ute Wassermann on the website anatomy. Visited on 06. January 2019.

Compositions

* ''Main gauche – souffle – main droite. Installation/Performance for flute, contact microphones and two loudspeakers (1986)''
''Windy Gong for voice, microphone, prepared loudspeaker and gong (1995)''
* ''fausse voix for voice, electrified gong and bird whistles (2006)''
''Soledades: voice performance with bird whistles in Plänterwald in Berlin (2014)''

''InPutOut for microphones, loudspeakers and metal plates (2015)''

''Pneuma for voice and speaking machine (2016)''

''Strange Songs for voice and bird whistles (2016)''

Discography

* Ute Wassermann, Birgit Ulher ''Kunststoff'' (Creative Sources 2004) * Ute Wassermann ''Birdtalking'' (Nur/Nicht/Nur 2007) * Ute Wassermann, Richard Barrett ''Pollen'' (Creative Sources 2007) * Alex Kolkowski, Ute Wassermann ''Squall Line'' (psi 2011) * Ute Wassermann ''Ute Wassermann – A Retrospective Tribute , 1984–2012'' (Audition Records 2011) * Ute Wassermann, Birgit Ulher ''Radio Tweet'' (Creative Sources 2015)

External links

''Official Website of Ute Wassermann''

''Website Les Femmes Savantes''

''Website parak.eets''

''Video interview of the Agosto Foundation with Ute Wassermann''

Literature

* Reimar Reetz: ''Experimente mit inneren und äußeren Räumen. Die Stimmperformerin Ute Wassermann'' positionen No. 70, (2007). * Julian Cowley: ''Ute Wassermann – The German Improv vocalist pushes her body to extreme limits to generate multiphonic ululations.'' The Wire. No. 284, (2007). * Cathy van Eck: ''Between Air and Electricity. Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments.'' Bloomsbury Academic, New York 2017. (''Windy Gong by Ute Wassermann: Singing through the gong'' 153–155).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wassermann, Ute 1960 births Living people German women musicians University of Fine Arts of Hamburg alumni Psi Records artists