AUDREY CHEN + FREDERIC BLONDY (4.5.08)

Collaboration For Cello And Prepared Piano.

Chen's work incorporates voice, cello, and analog electronics with movement and sculptural concepts. the result is a visceral layering of traditional and extended techniques relying, as one might expect, on cardboard spaceship shields and underwater mumbling.

This performance was a special live improv collaboration with Frederic Blondy.  Blondy deconstructs his instruments (here a piano) to the point of most basic instrumentality. His piano could act like a stringed instrument, like a cello, or as a more familiar "rhythm section" piano.  The prepared piano can slip in and out of the roles of accompaniment and leading, lyrical narration easily, making a perfect partner for Chen's duo technique of opera-informed voice and schizophrenic cello.

AUDREY CHEN + FREDERIC BLONDY CLIP

Live set photo by Matt Hurst