Psychic Liberation

Psychic Liberation (PL) is a label founded in 2013 that originally ran with Miguel Alvariño under the title Primitive Languages as a cassette and record store project in New York City. Since 2019, Nick Klein has been running it solo out of the EU under the title Psychic Liberation. On 30th December, Audrey Chen, bela and Elvin Brandhi will perform at the monthly concert series of the same name in the Roter Salon.

Audrey Chen is a 2nd generation Chinese/Taiwanese-American musician who was born into a family of material scientists, doctors and engineers, outside of Chicago in 1976. Parting ways with the family convention, she turned to the cello at age 8 and voice at 11. After years of classical and conservatory training in both instruments, with a resulting specialization in early and new music, she parted ways again in 2003 to begin new negotiations with sound in order to discover a more individually honest aesthetic.
Since then, using the cello, voice and occasional analog electronics, Chen’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. A large component of her music is improvised, is completely un-processed and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of an analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language. For nearly two decades, her predominant focus has been her solo work with the cello, voice and electronics, but she has more recently begun to shift back towards the exploration of the voice as a primary instrument. Aside from her solo concerts, Chen performs currently in duo with Phil Minton; as HISS & VISCERA with modular synth player Richard Scott; as BEAM SPLITTER with trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø; as MOPCUT with Lukas König and Julien Desprez; as trio in SEN RYO NO with modular synth players Tara Transitory and Nguyen Baly; in duo with electronic music artist Kaffe Matthews; as AFTERBURNER for voice/live electronics/light with Doron Sadja; and as VOICE/PROCESS for voice/live digital process with Mexican sound artist Hugo Esquinca. Notable past collaborators include German conceptual artist John Bock and abstract turntablist Maria Chavez.

audreychen.com

Originally from Paju South Korea, bela is a musician and a performance artist based in Berlin. They are known for electronic music performance merging pungmul – a Korean folk act rooted in agricultural traditions and linked to past social movements – and vocals inspired by extreme metal. bela shapes pungmul into the ritual for queer rage and grief with sub-heavy distortions and cries. Since moving to Berlin in the autumn of 2022, they have been announced as a participant of SHAPE+ Platform 23′-24′. Their releases include Guidelines (2021), 2020 (2021), and why are you so lost sweetie (2020).
bela has performed in experimental music festivals CTM Festival (DE), Ephemera (PL), Unsound Kraków (PL), and Rewire Festival (NL). They also participated in European art festivals transmediale (DE) and EVA International (IE). bela has supported artists Okkyung Lee, Pharmakon, and Eli Keszler. They received honorable mention from GigaHertz PopExperimental sponsorship award (2023) at Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe for their upcoming work.
bela also played as a DJ at clubs in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Berlin. As a DJ, they are on the sub-friendly quest to connect disparate dots in Latin, Arabic and UK bass that shy away from the 4-on-the-floor rhythms. bela is a co-runner of Sorrow Club*: a mixed event series involving music and performance from global acts such as Ana Roxanne, Lucy Liyou, and Salamanda.

Elvin Brandhi is an improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist from Bridgend, Wales, who builds aberrant beats from field recordings, tape, vinyl, instrument and voice. Using sound and voice as an expansive language transgressing intrinsic systemics and inherited syntactical etiquettes, her live shows are unyielding bursts of erupting animation where her caustic stream of consciousness cavorts with restless, glitched out heaviness. Her creative momentum comprises a range of collaborations and an endless nomadism. Her first E.P ‘Shelf life’ was released on ‘C.A.N.V.A.S’ in 2018. She one half of father / daughter noise-improv berserkers Yeah You who released on Alter, Slip, Opal, Psychik Dancehall and Good Food. She also performs in collaborations such as the Avril Spleen project with Joseph Jadame (maltash), Bahk with Daniel Blumberg (MUTE), as well as contributions to Drew Mcdowall’s agalma, just to name a few.

curated by Hugo Esquinca and Nick Klein