It's questionable whether Ute Wassermann would classify herself as a singer (and certainly not as a jazz singer), being much more interested in the use of extended vocal techniques and their relationships to particular spaces. In this she has more in common with the most advanced instrumentalists than with more conventional vocalists, although improvisation does play a very large part in her art.

Born in Germany. she studied sound installation and vocal performance in Hamburg, and by the mid-1980s had developed many multivoiced vocal techniques based on variations in register, timbre and articulation, combining these in response to the context of each performance. As well as working solo, she has collaborated with many of Europe's leading improvisers, including trumpeter Birgit Uhler and London guitarist John Russell.