(…) This feeling extended to several events at Forum Wallis that were either centred upon improvisation or unconventional approaches to music-making. The most discombobulating were the two 45-minute experiences that were a cross between an installation, performance art and a concert, designed to open “the composition process to public spaces”. Conceived and performed by Javier Hagen, recorder player Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Simone Conforti, and taking place in Leuk’s large, derelict Burgerspittel (where two nuns dual-handedly cared for the old and infirm for many years), this involved the bringing together of reworked excerpts of existing compositions popping up quasi-randomly at various points throughout the building, which was filled with a huge array of equally quasi-random objects. This paraphernalia ranged from strategically-positioned lights that enhanced parts of the building itself – which was somewhat creepy, particularly in the late evening when this was taking place – to disarming sights such as a large collection of crucifixes, a desk illuminated from the inside and topped with a candelabra, a room filled with low-resolution computer graphics spilling across a crumpled foil sheet, and various musical gadgets the output of which could be embellished by manipulating various children’s toys (which were rigged to interact with the electronics). In roughly equal parts fascinating, inscrutable and absurd, it would be uncharitable to call it pretentious as the whole thing was clearly designed as a holistic sound and light encounter in which inner connections or meanings (if any) were entirely one’s own. The performed excerpts were all taken from works composed for Hagen and Mayer-Spohn (...), two of which in particular were breathtakingly memorable. A section from ar by Swiss-Armenian composer Varoujan Cheterian featured Hagen and Mayer-Spohn sitting in cupboards on either side of a connecting wall. Being in separate rooms, it wasn’t at first obvious that a duet was taking place, but when the penny dropped it was if the wall between them became immaterial, the duo’s soft dialogue – flitting to and from a unison F, like an embellished drone – intimately focused and poignant. At the opposite pole of behaviour, a burst of Pollaple Roes by Mehmet Ali Uzunselvi, the duo now at either end of a small room, was a dazzling demonstration of closely-coordinated chaos, so fiery in its raw emotional charge that the air seemed to crackle around them. These performances – and the others too, plus the way the duo wove them together in their movements through the space – prevented the Burgerspittel experience from being merely a superficial sequence of weird tableaux, grounding it in disorienting but thoroughly human interaction. (5against4.com, 6/2019) link

(…) It was at these concerts that i heard not only the best music at the festival, but witnessed some of the most dazzling performances i’ve ever experienced. (...) UMS ´n JIP managed to make Luis Codera Puzo‘s oscillation ou interstice so intimate (...), to the point that the duo were often so quiet it was if they were playing privately to each other, oblivious to the presence of an audience. As such their joint articulation of the text –  a setting of French poet Irène Gayraud’s text ‘la porteuse de lance’ – was made gripping and tantalising, sounding almost out of reach despite being performed barely a few feet in front of us. Most stunning of all, though, was the duo’s rendition of Japanese composer Motoharu Kawashima‘s Das Lachenmann IV, a literally amazing essay in choreographed laughter. Mayer-Spohn’s recorder was inextricably integrated with Hagen’s vocalisations, the two combining to form a single voice not merely laughing but uttering a plethora of associated sounds, gestures, grunts, croaks, whines and wails. It was as absurd as it was utterly incredible. As i said at the start of my previous article, it’s impossible to be aware of everything that’s going on in the world of contemporary music. But having now – finally, in its thirteenth year(!) – experienced Forum Wallis, i realise that it’s too significant, too ambitious and too triumphant in its commitment to the most weird and wonderful new music to be ignored. The festival’s home, Leuk, may be a small town, but each one of its concerts felt every bit as epic and momentous as the mountains surrounding it. (5against4.com, 6/2019) link

UMS ´n JIP zeigen, was Musik auch noch sein kann: unbekanntes Terrain, das die Gehörgänge überrascht, herausfordert, amüsiert und bestens unterhält. Sie nennen sich UMS ’n JIP und sind irgendwie keine Band, auch wenn sie manchmal wie eine tönen, sind keine Schauspieler, auch wenn sie hin und wieder wie welche auftreten, sind keine Verrückten, auch wenn sie ziemlich verrückte Musik machen. UMS ist Ulrike Mayer-Spohn und JIP ist Javier Hagen. Beide studierten klassische Musik, Komposition und Audiodesign. Über 1000 Konzerte haben die beiden in den vergangenen zehn Jahren gegeben, in Europa, den USA, Australien, Russland und Fernost. Ihre Kompositionen gewannen Preise an zahlreichen Festivals rund um den Erdball. Weshalb sie dennoch nicht so bekannt sind, wie Miley Cirus oder Justin Bieber, liegt an ihrem Musikstil: Neue Musik. Das ist eben mehr als Strophe, Refrain, Strophe, Bridge, Refrain, Aaaa, Fade-Out. Das ist avantgardistisch, performativ, installativ, multimedial und wenn man’s zum ersten Mal hört und sieht tatsächlich ein wenig crazy shit. Im September kommen die beiden für einen aussergewöhnlichen Liederabend aus ihrem Heimatkanton Wallis nach Basel. Es erwarten euch viel Elektronik, die Verknüpfung von Text und Komposition, Eigenkreationen und Werke von Weggefährten des Ensembles. Das wird spannend, witzig, kurios und ganz bestimmt eine Bereicherung für deinen Musik-Horizont! (Basel Live, 9/2019) link