... The act of a happy shock. That is what it is to go on stage, on your own, and improvise. This is what Ute Völker has repeatedly taken on, in different forms for many years, alongside her ensemble work...

As an improviser she takes the risk of making audible to the world what she has heard in the world.
What that means, in Ute Völker's case, can be understood by those who have seen how she begins to play. Those who have not only heard what was produced acoustically, but also heard how that first tone was produced.
Everything in her art is subject to the economy of air, turning her almost completely unwieldy instrument, apparently useless as means of enlarging the body, into an instrument...

As if out of an endless space Ute Völker lets the initial tone build itself slowly from the inaudible while also unfolding into a space and carpet of sound with those that follow, creating a build-up of tension through sequential structuring or twining.
Restrained but precise, she creates sound structures through strong, rhythmic, staccato tone lines, which are given volume through a differentiated dynamic of small changes and abrupt breaks.

Excerpt from an essay by Dr. Andreas Steffens

Download the whole Essay (PDF, german Version)