MOPCUT

Mopcut is an international trio formed by experimental vocalist and electronic musician Audrey Chen, Lukas Koenig, one of Europe’s most renowned percussionists, and French guitar-eccentric Julien Deprez. Their ability to improvise defies any genre limitations. Their energy driven, raging numbers oscillate between unleashed free expression and tamed, tight noise. Structured around ecstatic micro-explosions, they resemble an imaginary form of communication.

Their objective is a construct of noise and sounds that completely envelopes the listeners and has an equally as intensive impact on the ears as on the inner eye – that’s how Audrey Chen, Julien Desprez, and Lukas König describe their trio project MOPCUT, which celebrated its premiere at donaufestival Krems (AUT) in 2018. Their improvisation abilities transcend all genre borders. Lukas König utilises his drums, synthesizer, and voice; Julien Desprez plays electric guitar; and Audrey Chen overlays the sounds from her analogue synthesizers with ecstatic extemporised vocals.

The 25 tracks of JITTER (opal tapes, 2021) are a condensation of EAI's performative history, with all silence ejected. Space and time is filled with their hyper kinetic approach leaving little respite for any listener. It's as repulsive as it is fascinating. As exhausting as it genuinely would be to live a 24 hour life, be that blue bottle or snare skin. (Opal tapes)

Mopcut are Audrey Chen from the US on voice and analogue electronics, Julien Desprez from France on electric guitar and Lukas König from Austria on drums and synthesizer. Mopcut aim at minimalism or maximalism, depending. Improvisation, noise and electronic beats work well as backgrounds.(...) With its lo-fi electronics, the album “Accelerates Frames of Reference” is mostly zany and playful, but with darker, visceral explorations such as “Hail Shaft”. A tightly disciplined yet exuberant set of performances. (THE WIRE)

(...) a trio collectively known as Mopcut. Chen’s electronically processed vocalizations morph and meld with the grinding, distorted drones of guitar and the various triggers, loops and low rumbles of König’s devices. What emerges is a series of evocative electro-soundscapes, the noises of a dense cosmopolis, as chilling as they are alluring. (NYC Jazz Records)

Mopcut finds three distinguished members of the experimental and improvisational scenes coming together to unleash a work of true chaos. Lukas Konig, known from Koenigleopold and Kompost 3, leads this hyper-rhythmic assault from behind the drumkit. He is joined by guitarist extraordinaire and Fire! Orchestra member Julien Desprez, who arrives with both maniacal renditions of instrument exploration and minimalistic sound scape craftsmanship. Rounding up this magnificent company is vocalist/cellist Audrey Chen, who leaves behind the cello and instead dives into a no-
holds-barred investigation of the human voice and its capabilities.
What defines Mopcut is the tendency to rapidly change perspective. Introducing their debut record Accelerated Frames of Reference with the seven-minute long opus “Fictitious Forces,” it is glorious to behold how they are able to switch from frantic, free-jazz-inspired outbursts to minimal, psych-induced overtures. For Mopcut, the duality of maximalism and minimalism has a common point of origin, and that is exactly what they explore. All three members embrace this schism and deliver both energetic explosions filled with extreme noise and complex progressions, but also tribalistic introspection with a dose of spirituality. Kronig, Desprez, and Chen are able
to produce a Janus-like record, one that fully embraces its bifurcations.
(Invisible Oranges, )