Charnel Ground presents: AUDREY CHEN & NICK KLEIN (US) RUSSELL HASWELL (UK) & HUGO ESQUINCA (MX) ADAM CAMPBELL (UK)

Audrey Chen & Nick Klein:
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 specialisation 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 voice, cello and analogue 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 unprocessed and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of an analogue 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.
Nick Klein is an artist working in sound and art and sometimes (begrudgingly) sound art with a lean towards the social potential in those modalities as they interact. Klein has recorded a large amount of music for tape, CD, digital file, and vinyl editions for music labels around the world, as well as running his own amorphous label project PL (primitive languages, Psychic Liberation, etc).
Russell Haswell & Hugo Esquinca:
Russell Haswell is a restlessly forward-thinking, multi-disciplinary artist, performer and curator. With a background steeped in computer music, black metal, noise, techno and solo improvisation, his practice is renowned for broaching the extremities of visual and sonic arts. He’s performed in noted live and HDJ [hard disc jockey] actions with Aphex Twin, Gescom, Pan Sonic and Masami Akita (Merzbow), among others, and worked with Florian Hecker on Iannis Xenakis‘ UPIC system in their Haswell & Hecker duo, whose Blackest Ever Black LP is widely considered a milestone of modern electronic music composition
Hugo Esquinca’s work is a multi-layered crust, intentionally obfuscated through excess, deliberately hard to peel. Whether by testing the listener’s ability to process sonic density and amplitude, or by pushing down on the functional event horizon of whatever system he utilises (from computers to trusty cardioid microphones), Hugo‘s live recordings, site-specific installations and recorded pieces are a constant celebration of that in-between, dream-like grey area, and the collapse that comes with it.
Adam Campbell:
Adam Campbell is a Scottish musician based in Berlin who works with improvisation, feedback and non-linear systems. With Tristan Clutterbuck he runs Fancyyyyy, a record label and publisher of cybernetic music instruments. Ongoing projects Ego Depletion with Fritz Welch and Butter with Tina Krekels and Grant Smith. Recent works include WHAT a neural pulsar synthesis system built in collaboration with Claud Speeed for Synthetic Minds at Medialab Matadero and collaborative performances with Audrey Chen, Nic Krog, Nat Phillips and Aonghus McEvoy.