About Audrey

AUDREY CHEN: voice/cello/electronics
www.myspace.com/audreychen

>>>> Audrey Chen is a Chinese-American musician and performance artist born outside of Chicago in 1976. Using the cello, voice and analog electronics, Chen’s work focuses on the combination and layering of traditional and extended techniques. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is often extremely personal and visceral. Her performance work incorporates sound, movement… more

Audrey Chen: voice/cello/electronics SOLO

AUDREY CHEN: voice/cello/electronics
www.myspace.com/audreychen
>>>> Audrey Chen is a Chinese-American musician and performance artist born outside of Chicago in 1976. Using the cello, voice and analog electronics, Chen's work focuses on the combination and layering of traditional and extended techniques. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is often extremely personal and visceral. Her performance work incorporates sound, movement and visual/sculptural concepts. Chen performs solo and in collaboration with a wide number of musicians and dancers. Among musicians, she has worked with many great improvisers, including Phil Minton, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, Phill Niblock, Frederic Blondy, Jim Pugliese, Alessandro Bosetti, Mike Cooper, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, and Gianni Gebbia. Some current projects include: duos with Phil Minton, Frederic Blondy, Robert van Heumen, Katt Hernandez, Nate Wooley, a new trio project with Nate Wooley and C. Spencer Yeh, 3AandE: with Seamus Cater, Robert van Heumen and Nate Wooley and Trockeneis: with Andy Hayleck, Dan Breen, Catherine Pancake and Paul Neidhardt. Chen has performed and tours regularly in Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan and the USA. She is currently based in Baltimore, MD USA but primarily maintains an active touring schedule throughout Europe.
  • DNK - amsterdam, NL
    DNK - amsterdam, NL
  • audio art festival - krakow, poland
    audio art festival - krakow, poland
  • audrey chen/mv carbon @ west nile, NYC
    audrey chen/mv carbon @ west nile, NYC
  • entropia gallery - wroclaw, poland
    entropia gallery - wroclaw, poland
  • UCHO - gdynia, poland
    UCHO - gdynia, poland
  • UCHO - gdynia, poland
    UCHO - gdynia, poland
  • mozg
    solo performance festiwal muzyka z mozgu 2007 bydgoszcz, poland
  • strange maine
    solo performance live recording 2007 portland, maine
  • glacial
    live solo recording movement/sound/art festival in opava, czech republic 2007
  • getting the wind knocked out
    solo voice 2004

Audrey Chen: THE TANK

THE TANK: solo performance by Audrey Chen
(for voice, hydrophones, 100 gallon tank) 20 minutes.

This piece was originally performed at the Transmodern Age Festival in Baltimore, MD USA (2005). It was later realized in 2006 and incorporated two more musicans.

The principles of this work are very simple. Given a limited set of resources (time, materials, and technical assistance), I had been able to arrange a set environment, which also left ample room for chance and instantaneous manipulations. The resulting piece became something part instrument and part live installation. The tank is filled with water and is amplified utilizing 2 hydrophones. Below is a description of the original performance in 2005.

Upon entering the room, the audience is confronted with a tank of water that is lit from underneath by red lights, rendering the water the same color. There is a long dress floating in the water. When the performance begins I emerge from a separate space with goggles, a towel, and a pair of yellow swimming trunks. I walk across the space toward the tank, climb up, and lower myself into the water. This disruption to the stillness of the water is picked up immediately by the hydrophones. The remainder of the performance is improvised. I move, twist and contort my body inside the tank, struggle with the dress and eventually put it on. I am a fish. I am human. I am none of the above. I make sounds using my voice and also by rubbing my extremities and skin against the sides of the tank. It acts as a resonance chamber.

My â??workâ?? in general is process oriented. The majority of it is sound based; with a strong live performance aspect with brings it beyond the borders of simply being a musician. It is visceral and extremely emotional. I often give myself a simple map, or none at all, and respect the way the moment is shared with the audience revealing itself in real time.

This piece is an underwater vocalization.
  • Bound
    Bound
    2015, Polystyrene, plaster bandages, shellac, sisal rope, 20”x16”x16”
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    img_2542.jpg
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    img_2546.jpg
  • Physical Challenge, Lift (Image #1)
    Physical Challenge, Lift (Image #1)
    Documentation of a Physical Challenge to lift my body in as many ways as possible, unrehearsed. Archival Digital Photograph 8"x12" 2015
  • img_2556.jpg
    img_2556.jpg
  • 050408193908.jpg
    050408193908.jpg
  • 050408194600.jpg
    050408194600.jpg
  • photo0581.jpg
    photo0581.jpg
  • img_2553_1
    img_2553_1

Audrey Chen: voice/cello/electronics DUO Projects

AUDREY CHEN: voice/cello/electronics
www.myspace.com/audreychen

Some current and past DUO projects with:
Phil Minton (voice), KAMAMA: with Luca Marini (drums/percussion) Frederic Blondy (prepared piano), Robert van Heumen (live sampling/electronics), Katt Hernandez (violin/voice), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Id M Theft Able (voice/mouth/objects/friction/electronics/antics), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba/double bass), Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Alessandro Bosetti (soprano saxophone)
  • thrash and flank
    atlas: duo with alessandro bosetti (soprano saxophone) and audrey chen (voice/electronics) live recording 2006 berlin, germany
  • eating a volcano
    duo with tatsuya nakatani (percussion) and audrey chen (voice) live recording 2005 atlanta, georgia, from LIMN (HH productions)
  • atelier tampon
    duo with frederic blondy (prepared piano) recorded live at atelier tampon in paris, france 2007
  • abattoir
    abattoir: duo with robert van heumen (live sampling electronics) live recording at STEIM in amsterdam, NL 2008
  • martel
    duo with pierre-yves martel (viola da gamba) recorded live at the Sound Symposium in St. John's, New Foundland, Canada 2008
  • klinker 2
    duo with phil minton (voice) UK recorded live at "the klinker" in london, uk 2007
  • KAMAMA
    KAMAMA: audrey chen and luca marini (drums/percussion) recorded live in wilkes-barre, PA may 30, 2010

Audrey Chen: voice/cello/electronics INTERVIEWS

AUDREY CHEN: voice/cello/electronics
www.myspace.com/audreychen
>>>> Audrey Chen is a Chinese-American musician and performance artist born outside of Chicago in 1976. Using the cello, voice and analog electronics, Chen�s work focuses on the combination and layering of traditional and extended techniques. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is often extremely personal and visceral. Her performance work incorporates sound, movement and visual/sculptural concepts. Chen performs solo and in collaboration with a wide number of musicians and dancers. Among musicians, she has worked with many great improvisers, including Phil Minton, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, Phill Niblock, Frederic Blondy, Jim Pugliese, Alessandro Bosetti, Mike Cooper, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, and Gianni Gebbia. Some current projects include: duos with Phil Minton, Frederic Blondy, Robert van Heumen, Katt Hernandez, Nate Wooley, a new trio project with Nate Wooley and C. Spencer Yeh, 3AandE: with Seamus Cater, Robert van Heumen and Nate Wooley and Trockeneis: with Andy Hayleck, Dan Breen, Catherine Pancake and Paul Neidhardt. Chen has performed in Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan and the USA. She is currently based in Baltimore, MD USA where she is member of the Red room and High Zero Collective, an on-going series and international festival devoted to experimental improvised music.
  • the signal
    interview on WYPR "the signal" in 2005
  • radio nz
    radio interview in wellington, new zealand 2005

Audrey Chen: TROCKENEIS

TROCKENEIS is audrey chen, catherine pancake, paul neidhardt, andy hayleck, dan breen (voice, dry ice, percussion, bowed metal) respectively.

Born quite impromtu during a live improv set performed for the Peadbody Conservatory student body in spring 2004, the Baltimore quintet, Trockeneis, has since been generating excitement in the East Coast improv/experimental music scene. The group is comprised of a core group of Baltimore improvisors each who brings great passion and musical subtly to create a truly unique sound/improv experience. A combination of highly idiosyncratic instrumentation, focused, mature musicianship and ego-free, risk-taking group dynamics promise to make this group known on a national level. The group has definite roots in lowercase improv, but grows rapidly beyond that creating complex, rich soundscapes rooted in a true spirit of experimentation.They have recently released their debut record Trockeneis 5025 AD on ehse records. www.ehserecords.com and www.trockeneismusic.com
  • trockeneis-ice storm on 95south
    trockeneis: audrey chen (voice), catherine pancake (dry ice), paul neidhardt (percussion), andy hayleck (bowed metal), dan breen (bowed metal) recorded live in washington DC 2007
  • trockeneis
    trockeneis
  • trockeneis/chen
    trockeneis/chen

Audrey Chen: TRIO with Massimo Simonini and Tiziano Popoli

Trio with Massimo Simonini (theremin, objects) and Tiziano Popoli (keyboards) in a live improvisation with the second section of Godard's "L'histoire du Cinema". This performance took place during the summer 2006 in the piazza of a small village outside of Vignola, Italy.
  • L'histoire du cinema, godard
  •  pre-concert
    pre-concert
  • massimo simonini - pre-concert
    massimo simonini - pre-concert