Anne La Berge (1955) | flute and electronics
Anne La Berge’s passion for the extremes in both composed and improvised music has led her to the fringes of storytelling and sound art as her sources of musical inspiration. Her performances bring together the elements on which her reputation is based: a ferocious and far-reaching virtuosity, a penchant for microtonal textures and melodies, and her unique array of percussive flute effects, all combined with interactive electronic processing and text.
Recent commissions include an ensemble work for Kingma System flutes that has been performed in the US, UK and The Netherlands.
Her most recent releases are the cassette Three Cities with electronic artist Phil Maguire on the verz label and a triple LP, Modern Genetics, on the Splendor Amsterdam label.
She performs regularly as soloist, with the ensemble MAZE and with her partner David Dramm. Sheis a founding artist of Splendor Amsterdam, a collective of musicians, who have transformed an old bathhouse in Amsterdam into a cultural mecca, where she regularly produces and shares small scale concerts with international guests.
In 1999, together Steve Heather and Cor Fuhler, she founded Kraakgeluiden, an improvisation series based in Amsterdam, exploring combinations of acoustic instruments, electronic instruments and computers, and using real-time interactive performance systems. Many of its musical collaborations that have resulted have taken on a life beyond the Kraakgeluiden series, which ceased in 2006. La Berge’s own music has evolved in parallel, and the flute has become only one element in a sound world that includes computer samples, the use of spoken text and electronic processing.
She works regularly as an improvisation and live electronics coach worldwide in the context of residencies and private coaching.
She can be heard on the Largo, Artifact, Etcetera, Hat Art, Frog Peak, Einstein, X-OR, Unsounds, Canal Street, Rambo, esc.rec., Intackt and Data labels which include recordings with Ensemble Modern, United Noise Toys, Fonville/La Berge, Rasp/Hasp, Bievre/La Berge, Apricot My Lady, Big Zoom, Corkestra, La Berge/Williamson, MAZE and Phil Maguire.
Her music is published by Frog Peak Music, Alry Publications and Donemus; and many of her Max patch based compositions are available as Apps from her privately. She is the Managing Director of the Volsap Foundation that produces innovative music projects.