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"Phil Minton's sonorous voice is capable of producing disturbing sound collages, whereas Ute Wassermann's polyphonic technique makes the room resonate with harmonics. Coupled with Blume's finely nuanced percussive work and Thomas Lehn's extraordinary analogue synthesizer sounds, a physical immediacy of rare intensity is achieved.
speak easy is an organism rather than an ensemble, grown out of high musical competence and full of creative energy. (Hannes Schneider)

Vocal artist Ute Wassermann is a composer/performer, improviser and interpreter of contemporary music. She studied at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts with Henning CHRISTIANSEN, specializing in sound installation and vocal performance, and studied classical singing with Carol PLANTAMURA (San Diego) and Arnold van MILL (Hamburg). Since 1984 she has developed many special multivoiced vocal techniques, catalogued by register, timbre and articulative sequences, which may be deconstructed and/or superimposed and used to explore spatial resonance phenomena. In 1993-94 she received a scholarship for a year at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.

She has given numerous performances of her own solo work and performs regularly with many improvising musicians including duos with Richard BARRETT (live electronics) and with Birgit ULHER (trumpet), also with Jaap BLONK (voice), Matthias KAUL and Sven Åke JOHANSSON (percussion), Peter KOWALD (contrabass) and Aleksander KOLKOWSKI (violin) in venues ranging from international festivals (Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires) to lofts. Ute has collaborated frequently with composers who have created works especially for her voice, including Henning CHRISTIANSEN, Richard BARRETT (Opening of the Mouth), Chaya CZERNOWIN (Shu Hai), Hans-Joachim HESPOS (ballati and flio), Ana Maria RODRIGUEZ (codeswitching) and Sven Åke JOHANSSON, and has performed with numerous ensembles and orchestras including ASKO, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, ELISION Ensemble, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in music theatre works by Chaya CZERNOWIN (Pnima Munich Biennale 2000), Matthias KAUL and Salvatore SCIARRINO among others. She has taken part in CD productions from Radio Bremen, BBC and SWR which have been released on Mode, Creative Sources and other labels. In the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik in 2006 she will take part in six performances by the composition/performance collective Les Femmes Savantes.

Phil Minton is amongst the most important and original vocalists in Contemporary Music. Since 1965 he has worked with most of the artists and groups active in this field, spanning a range of styles from Mike Westbrook to John Zorn and Bob Ostertag to Roger Turner and Veryan Weston. His unique vocal approach can be heard on numerous CD`s and records.
He got his first lessons in trumpet playing at the age of 15. Since 1959 till 1961 he was a member of the Brian Waldron Quintet (Torquay). After moving to London in 1962 he worked as a vocalist and trumpet player with the Mike Westbrook Orchestra (since 1962 till 64, and since 1971 till1990), touring in various countries of the world and taking part in festivals in Adelaide, Edinburgh, New York, Strasbourg and Berlin. He is the founder and leader of the vocal band Voice (in collab. with M. Nichols, J. Tippets), and also of a great number of impromptu vocal duets and trios with F. Frith, R. Turner, P. Brotzmann, G. Christmann, G. Lewis, R. Malfati, M. Waisvisz and others, giving concerts in Europe, Russia, USA and Australia. At that time he participated in various intermedia artistic projects, like for example, in Konrad Boehmer’s opera Apocalipsis cum figuris, M. Figgis’s theatrical performances and so on. In the late 1980s, besides tough touring, he participated in a number of international festivals, including the ones in Victoriaville, Willisaw, Vancouver, Linz, and also at the Ars Electronica (Linz), Musica Strasbourg (Strasbourg) and others. In 1988 Phil Minton was called the Best Male Singer in Europe by the International Jazz Forum Magazine. In collaboration with V. Weston he arranged a number of musical projects, including Songs from a prison diary (based on recordings made by Ho Chi Minh in prison, score for 22 voices), that was presented at the international festival Musica‘91 in Strasbourg and got The Cornelius Cardew Composition Prize (among others collaborative works with V. Weston are such as: Naming the animals, Mahno). In the 1990s he actively collaborated with G. Graewe’s GrubenKlang Orchester, he was a member of Trio Raphiphi (together with R. Malfati and Ph. Wachsmann), in the trio with J. Butcher and E. Hirt, with M. Mattos and M. Blume and many others. He took part in various musical festivals both as a solo musician and a member of groups, including the following festivals: Music Triennale (Cologne, 1994), Vocal Festival (Stockholm, 1994), Angelica 94 (Bologna, 1994), Berlin Jazz Festival (Berlin, 1994), Music Festival (Salzburg, 1995), International Sound Art Festival (Hannover, 1995), Vocal Jazz Festival (Novosibirsk, 1995) and many others. Minton conducted a number of concert tours with B. Ostertag’s electronic projects in the USA, Europe and Japan (1995), in Europe and the USA as a member of Phil Minton Quartet (together with R. Turner, D. Butcher, V. Weston, 1996), in Europe (with Tom Cora and Roof, 1997), in Europe (with C. Bley, 1997-98) and many others. He made numerous radio and TV recordings in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Canada, including retrospect programs about his creative activities, made by Yoon for the German channels SWF and SFB. Among his biggest works for the radio is the main part in the radio-opera Odysseus 7 (Bayericher Rundfunk, Munich). He is the author of around one hundred musical pieces recorded solo and in groups at various studios in Great Britain and abroad. The recent releases are: Two concerts (FMP, 1995), Bad Minton (Long Arms Records, 1995), Time stories (in collab. with D. Moss, Intakt, 1997), Verbatim, flesh and blood (Seeland, 1998). Phil Minton lives and works in London (Great Britain).

Since the early 1980s Thomas Lehn has been working as a performer, interpreter, composer and improviser of contemporary music. His individual style of musical expression is rooted in the experience of a broad spectrum of musical fields.
After studying recording engineering at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold (Germany), he moved to Cologne and received a formal education in order to become a professional pianist. From 1980 to 1987 he studied both classical and jazz piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. During the 1980s he was the pianist of numerous jazz formations and a member of workshop ensembles conducted by Gunter Hampel, George Russell and Keith Tippett.
As an interpreting pianist he has played concerts since 1982 - performing both contemporary new music including numerous first performances and traditional composed music of the classical and romantically period. In 1989 he initiated the chamber ensemble Trio Dario and four years later the Mengano Quartett. Focused on performing compositions of the contemporary avant-garde, he is pianist of the Nova Ensemble Wuppertal, the ConGioco Ensemble and the quartet Natrium. He has also worked in performances of music theatre compositions of Maria de Alvear and Manos Tsangaris and in projects of performance artist Angie Hiesl.
Based on his background as an interpreting and improvising pianist in the fields of classical, contemporary and jazz music, he developed his individual language in live-electronic music and this interest is pursued in parallel to his work as a pianist. The electronic equipment he uses consists of analogue synthesizers of the late 1960s. The facilities of these 'historic' instruments - e.g. to modify electronic sounds very directly as well as to combine and to control several parameters at the same time - allows him to spontaneously act and react in close contact with the process of tension, space and structure of the music during its performance. As a synthesizer player he has repeatedly collaborated with Martin Blume, John Butcher, Günter Christmann, Axel Dörner, Phil Durrant, Alexander Frangenheim, Wolfgang Fuchs, Mats Gustafsson, Gerry Hemingway, Tim Hodgkinson, Erhard Hirt, Paul Lovens, Paul Lytton, Radu Malfatti, Torsten Müller, Christian Munthe, Keith Rowe, John Russell, Hans Schneider, Burkhard Stangl, Martin Theurer and Roger Turner and others.
Combining the electronic with the acoustic sounds of the grand piano - including those colourful ones from the inside or those produced by piano preparation - he plays concerts with Die Klangraumer: a trio with Andreas Wagner on clarinet, saxophone and Guido Hafner on double bass. Since 1990 Die Klangraumer have worked continuously and have been involved in multimedia collaborations with the artist Andreas Bergen (Munich) - they performed alongside video art and accompanied live early experimental silent movies by Viking Eggeling, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hans Richter, Fernand Leger and others

Martin Blume has worked since 1983 as a performer and composer with several musicians and in different musical situations, both as a collaborator and in leading his own groups including musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Helmut Joe Sachse, Luc Houtkamp, Johannes Bauer, Conny Bauer, Marcio Mattos, Jay Oliver, Phil Minton, Lol Coxhill, John Butcher, Mario Schiano, Georg Graewe, Frank Gratkowski, Dieter Manderscheid, Hans Schneider, Wolfgang Fuchs, John Edwards, Werner Lüdi, John Russell, Chris Burn, Roger Turner, Joëlle Leandré, Axel Doerner, Horst Grabosch, Melvyn Poore, Earl Howard, Richard Teitelbaum, Jim Denley, Alfred Zimmerlin, Dorothea Schürch, Phil Wachsmann , Mats Gustafsson, Xu Feng Xia, Thomas Lehn, Fred van Hove, Wilbert de Joode, Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler, Cor Fuhler a.m.o. Own projects include LINES with Axel Doerner, Jim Denley, Phil Wachsmann & Marcio Mattos, FOURinONE with Luc Houtkamp, Johannes Bauer & Dieter Manderscheid, AXON with Phil Minton , Marcio Mattos & Fred van Hove, „2nd outlet“ with Luc Houtkamp & Cor Fuhler, Butcher-De Joode-Blume 3 and a Duo with Phil Wachsmann and Xu Feng Xia. Toured in Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, England, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, USA, Canada and Australia and performed at Festivals like: Ruhr-Jazz Festival Bochum 1990-1996, Jazz-Haus Festival Köln 1991, Open Systems Essen / Bochum 1997/2002, NOM-Festival Moers 1990, Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen 1993/1999/2001/2006, Jazz Summer Bolzano 1994, AnKlänge Ansbach 1995, European Jazz Night Füssen 1996, Summer Jazz Fiets Tour Groningen 1996/2000, Illinger Burgfest für Neue Musik 1996, International Jazz Festival Vancouver 1996/2000, Les Nuits Black Quebec 1996, Jazz Herbst Konstanz 1996/1998, Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon 1997, Musique Action Vandoevre-Les-Nancy 1997/1999/2002/2006, Densités Verdun 1999, What is Music? Festival Sydney, Melbourne 2000, Free Music Antwerpe 2000, Jazz à Mulhouse 2000/2003/2004, Taktlos Basel / Zürich 2001, Bolzano Jazz & Other 2001, Fonoteca Files Lissabon 2001, Jazzfestival Glauchau 2002, Controindicatione Rome 2002, Line Space Line Festival Los Angeles 2003, Empty Bottle Festival Chicago 2003, Le Gipfel du Jazz Freiburg 2003, Jazzherbst Dachau 2003, In Front Festval Aachen 2004, Novembermusic Den Bosch / Gent 2004, Colourscapes Music Festival London 2006

http://www.philminton.co.uk/
www.thomaslehn.com
http://www.elision.org.au/players/wassermann.html
Martin Blume

actual CD:

SPEAK EASY: BACKCHATS CS 149
UTE WASSERMANN voice PHIL MINTON voice THOMAS LEHN synthesizer
MARTIN BLUME drums
Creative Sources Recordings

actual DVD:

SPEAK EASY THE LOFT CONCERT

Shot live in concert at Loft in Cologne on March 14, 2008
by Pavel Borodin
http://pavelborodin.com/speak-easy

review:
"Cologne’s Loft has become a hunting reserve for Pavel Borodin’s shooting of improvising artists (pun intended). After last year’s excellent documentary on Elliott Sharp, The Velocity Of Hue (for which, reports the director, no willing label was found for distribution – a shame, given the quality of that particular work), we’re now able to watch a concert recorded March 14, 2008 by Speak Easy, the quartet of Ute Wassermann, Phil Minton, Thomas Lehn and Martin Blume.
The DVD comprises three episodes (the encore is available as bonus material), a no-frills multi-angle presentation which succeeds in portraying the essence of the performers, an infiltration of sorts in their physical effort, severe application and utter responsiveness. The setting is somehow reminiscent of a low-budget “off” theatre representation: purple background, wooden chairs, an impressive starkness. Minton and Wassermann are placed in front of the main camera, Lehn on the left, Blume on the right. Visually, a few contrasts are immediately noticeable, in the clothing (Minton, the lone non-German, wears a white shirt against the comrades’ general darkness) and in the type of gestural expressiveness. On one side there are the “scientists”, Lehn, perennially tight-lipped, manipulating the controls of his EMS Synthi with the same concentration of a neurosurgeon, Wassermann a cold-eyed emitter of implausible half-Tibetan-half-warbler vibrations with the only aid of a pair of bird calls. The opposite front sees Blume exploiting the percussive arsenal with controlled passion typically delivered with almost choreographic moves, plus the wild card Minton, whose facial contortion is a spectacle in itself (his close-ups are in fact a study in the rubbery characteristics of human expression, and one genuinely fears that the eyes will pop out of the skull at some point).
The four systematically demonstrate an inspiring consistency of reciprocal consideration, symbolized by a couple of instances in which Minton is captured opening a single eye amidst absolute absorption to check what the others are doing. The scarce recognisability of the sources in the pianissimo segments - the vocalists emitting imperceptible overtones, meshing with Lehn’s synthetic whispers and Blume’s barely audible cymbal scraping - is testament to the remarkable technical and creative homogeneity of these musicians, a seriousness ultimately immortalized. Thanks to this utopian filmmaker, the documentation won’t stop anytime soon (a “definitive” feature about the aforementioned Sharp and a Mark Feldman/Sylvie Courvoisier performance are in the can among other things). Meanwhile, visit this website if you want to get your hands on Borodin’s goodies. They deserve the utmost attention."

Massimo Ricci, bagatellen