Ma la Pert is the duo of Jennifer Walshe and Tony Conrad. They use voice, violins, viola, bass, autoharps, autotune, keyboard, shells, broken plastic, words, parts of words, stories, chanting, jigs, screaming, shouting, broken drum skins, bells, green furry outfits, breastplates, wire, bird call, and old lady dresses.
Walshe and Conrad first began working together after they ran from service as household slaves of King Pepy I at the end of Old Kingdom Egypt. They were subsequently monks in Carolingean Gaul during the period roughly 820 to 850, Venetian courtesans at Pope Eugene’s court during the mid 15th century, and prisoners on Reunion Island in 1738, where Walshe tried to secure Conrad’s escape using “remote viewing” techniques. The unfortunate outcome of the latter incident resulted in Conrad’s work as a medicine man in Australia in the 19th century, where in 1834, trying to quell a cattle riot, they both accidentally ingested leprosy vectors and subsequently lost three legs and two arms between them.