Charmaine Lee

Charmaine Lee (Australia/USA) Vocalist and improviser Charmaine Lee brings her singular approach to voice and live electronics, crafting intricate, spontaneous sonic environments. Known for a performance style that emphasizes improvisation, close listening, and the exploration of the human voice as a highly flexible sonic instrument, Lee’s work investigates texture, timbre, breath, resonance, and extended vocal techniques. Lee’s performances are typically created in the moment, responding to the acoustics of the space, collaborators, and the evolving musical environment. She employs whispers, multiphonics, glottal sounds, breath, vocal fry, overtone-like effects, and additional vocal methods that blur the boundaries between speech, singing, and abstract sound. With live electronic processing, Lee’s voice interacts dynamically with delays, feedback, looping, and other electronic manipulations. x/o (Vancouver) Untitled 2026, 20 minutes Audience Advisory: x/o’s performance includes loud sounds, haze, and strobe lights Interdisciplinary artist x/o works with the Vietnamese one-stringed instrument đàn bầu, electronics, field recordings, and samples through original compositions and structured improvisation. Drawing from ambient, industrial, metal, and noise, the work combines live processing, synthesis, distortion, and feedback with the sound of the instrument. Following earlier work centred on experimental electronic music, x/o’s recent projects have incorporated the đàn bầu as an expanding area of interest. Developed alongside an ongoing study of the instrument, the work draws on its performance practice while extending its sonic vocabulary through electronics and improvisation. Banner credits:Charmaine Lee by Menyhért Hivessy