Birgit Ulher, Leonel Kaplan

The first time I ever got a release with split channel audio was a 7" by John Duncan and Chris & Cosey. One was in the left speaker, and the other in the right speaker and if you would play it hearing both speakers simultaneously, you'd have a 'new' piece. I liked that idea a lot; although I never figured to what extent they planned the music, or whether this was a more or less random gathering of sounds. In the case of Leonel Kaplan (trumpet) and Birgit Uhler (trumpet, radio, speaker, objects) it's easier. They played at the same time and it was recorded with two separate microphones. The first piece was recorded in 2011, and the other three on May 3rd, 2012 and I assumed all recorded live (although the cover says, curiously, 'mixed and mastered'. What's there to mix if you separate the channels, I wondered) But I must also admit I wasn't really paying attention - my bad, I know - to the thing of stereo separation, and just sat back and listened. I couldn't even tell, interestingly enough, if my system is actually up with the correct left-right separation; that, I guess, also says something about the way these two people play their instruments: maybe a like, or at least it appears so. This is the kind of trumpet-as-object improvisation and as such they are both excellent players. Ulher is better known to me than Kaplan but it seems to me they both work along similar lines; using breathing in a non-ordinary way, the trumpet as a resonating box, and sometimes as a trumpet - hey, why not? - which makes all of this some very intense music. Music that requires your full attention: you can't do other stuff at the same, like reading a book or hovering the carpet. These forty or so minutes demand your full attention, but only then unfold something of quiet yet intense and very beautiful. (Vital Weekly)