a harpist
She’s a visual and sound artist, born in Ljubljana. She graduated from Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana with harp as her main instrument. She finished her MA studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design Ljubljana, she also studied at the academies in Reykjavík and Leipzig and completed internships at Aitor Throup studio in London and Atelier Hotel Pro Forma in Copenhagen. She is currently working at the music department of Radio Študent, represents one half of II/III duo and performs in solo and extended settings under the name rouge-ah.
In 2018, together with Larisa Vrhunc, Bogdana Herman, Katarina Juvančič, Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik and Urška Pompe, she was the guest of a round table entitled The position of a musician in Slovenia , led by Nina Dragičević In the frame of the City of Women festival. As part of the Sonica 2019 festival, she was invited to a conversation entitled PANEL: SOUND CAPITAL / SOUND CAPITAL was invited by the moderators Andrej Tomažin in addition to the interlocutors Simina Oprescu, Tim Shaw and Primož Krašovec.
Discography
· Zlatko Baracskai, Jaka Berger, Boris Janje, Urška Preis – Extent (Inexhaustible Editions, 2023)
· rouge-ah – для даши na Senzorama vol. 1 (ZARŠ, 2021)
· Zhlehtet – Celica (self-publishing, 2020)
· II/III – It could be paradise (AmbientSoup, 2020)
· Zhlehtet – Toyomi (self-publishing, 2020)
· rouge-ah – bare (Kamizdat, 2018)
Compilations
· rouge-ah – sunder na Senzorama vol. 2 (ZARŠ 2022)
· rouge-ah – námunámu na Access Frame: Colony (Kamizdat, 2022)
· rouge-ah – sentiment – rue – penance na Access Frame: Monstrosity (Kamizdat, 2021)
· rouge-ah – для даши na Senzorama vol. 1 (ZARŠ, 2021)
· rouge-ah – niti na Access Frame: Equity (Kamizdat, 2020)
· rouge-ah – stepbystep na Access Frame: Collectivity (Kamizdat, 2018)
Featuring musician
· rouge-ah – Holy Similaun (Kohlhass, 2023)
· rouge-ah – LXS (self-publishing, 2023)
· rouge-ah – John Lemke, composition Apparition on the album awlines (Denovali, 2022)
Current projects
· Solo: rouge-ah – acoustic harp, electric harp, field recordings, electronics, composing
· II/III: Urška Preis (rouge-ah) – harp, electronics, composing, Tine Vrabič (Nitz) – electronics composition, composing
· Zhlehtet: Rok Zalokar – piano, synthesizers, Urška Preis – harp, Jošt Drašler – double bass, Vid Drašler – drums
· Sujevera: Nina Orlić, Barbara Poček – diy instruments, Urška Preis – harp, Luka Seliškar – Jew’s harp, sound manipulations
We Point Out
rouge-ah: bare (Kamizdat, 2018)
Album titled bare, a debut by harpist and sound explorer that regularly works under a pseudonym ‘rouge-ah’, it’s a combination of processed recordings of harp and field recordings.
At the background is an intimate introspection that transforms itself into a sound self-portrait. The album bare uncovers and exposes but never too much, and always with with perseverance.
music & recording: Urška Preis
mixing & mastering: Luka Seliškar in Jure Anžiček
design: Hanna Juta Kozar
promo design, Rentgen streaming & visuals: Stella Ivšek
USB booklet: Maruša Hren
executive production: Luka Prinčič
»Eastern Europe has a banging underground scene headed up by women including, at Sonica: Ljubljana-based all-female DIY collective Kikimore, who used to throw ‘noise tea parties’; ČIPke workshops, who run electronic patchwork and labs for women only; electronic harp artist Rouge-Ah, who experiments with distortion and field-recordings; politically motivated feminist electronic duo Warrego Valles; and Slavic/gangster/geisha/pop musician Kukla.« (Sophie Brown, The Quietus, 2018)
»What one can value the most about the album bare is literally it’s bareness, like opened in comparison to covered (skin), to which the name of the album possibly points, or even in the sense of quantitative labelling. Barness that I, the author of this text, most value, surely mainly lies in the clarity of ideas and tasks, that rouge-ah proposes and also solves with each piece, the result of this bareness however becomes broken down, diverse and dynamic album, that in it’s best sense utilises the potentials of every single technique and – very obviously – practically every single cut of sound, that jumps in the mix of this electroacoustic album.« (Žiga Pucelj, Radio Študent, 2018)
»She is expanding the sound of harp in the contemporary tradition of harpists such as Zeena Parkins, Rhodri Davies, Clare Cooper, Hélène Breschand ao, and at the same time she is inscribing harp in the contemporary milieu of electroacoustic ambient and drone music« (Luka T. Zagoričnik, Centralala, 2018)
»At the same time this music utilises ideas, that can’t simply be broken down to technical details – instead, it stays susceptible for authors intuition and ungraspability of the performance.« (Aleš Rojc, Odzven, 2018)
https://thequietus.com/articles/25421-sonica-festival-things-learned-at-lifecutter-gian-swan-aisha-devi-willliam-basinski-live-review
https://radiostudent.si/glasba/tolpa-bumov/ii-iii-it-could-be-paradise
https://www.mladina.si/195802/i-iii-it-could-be-paradise/
https://radiostudent.si/glasba/r%C5%A1-recenzija/ii-iii
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv0b_zKr4To&t=5s