Jason Kahn
Jason Kahn was born in New York in 1960 and grew up in Los Angeles, drumming in rock bands until he left for Berlin in 1990. The kit went with him but did not survive intact: within a few years he was running percussion through electronics, and the line between the two stopped being useful. Zurich has been home since 2000. From 1997 to 2008 he ran Cut, a label he started because his own group had a tape and nowhere to put it, and closed after twenty-five records. He plays percussion, analogue synthesizer, computer and, more recently, his own voice, in whatever combination the room suggests. Several of his releases are books with sound attached.
Jason Kahn was born in New York in 1960 and grew up in Los Angeles, drumming in rock bands until he left for Berlin in 1990. The kit went with him but did not survive intact: within a few years he was running percussion through electronics, and the line between the two stopped being useful. Zurich has been home since 2000. From 1997 to 2008 he ran Cut, a label he started because his own group had a tape and nowhere to put it, and closed after twenty-five records. He plays percussion, analogue synthesizer, computer and, more recently, his own voice, in whatever combination the room suggests. Several of his releases are books with sound attached.
Voice and Sky
"Voice and Sky provides both a look at a previous work, On the Breeze – a series of public space interventions and text / sound installation – and an extension of that work in the form of a book and CD publication. My view is that an installation or any kind of work dealing with the idea of space – be it a public space or a designated art space – can only be fully experienced by being in that space first hand. In the case of On the Breeze, using material gathered hiking extensively through the S…
Teplo_Dom
Jason Kahn, Günter Müller and Norbert Möslang, all from Switzerland, comprise MKM trio, spontaneously founded in 2006 in Tokyo during their Japanese tour. They immediately achieved very fine results and collaborate since then. Their sound hovers between the at times harsh rhythmic noise of Norbert Möslang’s cracked everyday electronics and the rich sonorities of Günter Müller’s percussion-based samples and electronics. Jason Kahn’s work on analog synthesizer bridges these two worlds, adding high…
Space Text Sound
Space Text Sound documents text material used in three of my recent installations: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Hong Kong (After Perec) (2016), Drifting (2016) and Other Ghosts (2015). All three of these works investigate the nexus points between the production of space through sound and how text can be used to reflect on this process. I’m interested in how words can convey the sense of place sounds can and, beyond this, how these words impart a feeling for inner spaces, often more common…
Monads
New Jason Kahn double LP for analog electronics, voice, percussion, environmental recordings. "In the field of philosophy monads are often referred to as the elementary particles which combine to create a substance. In the context of this double LP, the title refers to the constituent facets of my musical activity: namely, percussion, electronics, environmental recording and voice. What ties these different pursuits together is my particular approach to composition. No matter what sound material…
Fukuoka / Osaka
Kahn (American, living in Zurich) and Olive (Canadian, living in Japan) recorded these pieces while on tour in Japan in May 2014. This release features two unhurried explorations for radio, synthesizer, and mixing board (Kahn) and magnetic pickups (Olive). “Fukuoka,” presents a series of gradual unfurlings; pockets of pockmarked, dented and torn glass clusters, tumbling upon and over each other, perhaps briefly interlocking by way of some fragile barb, only to instantaneously break loose. “Osaka…
Distinctly_dive
Time-served, Zurich-based improvisors, Norbert Möslang (Voice Crack) and Jason Kahn reprise their duo with 'Distinctly_Dive', recorded March 1st, 2013 in St. Gallen by Jason Kahn for Poland's Bocian. Skittish percussion, stray shortwave radio and amorphous spectral electronics collide, overlap and react against each other in an almost jazz-wise display of rhythmic fluidity and tonal chaos perfectly suspended and given room in the mix by Möslang.
On the A-side they never quite tear-out but …
Songline
An extended voice/ radical vocality album, Songline was recorded during one evening in the rooms of a former Swisscom telephone relay station in Zürich. I decided to use the main room, which was entirely empty. Its linoleum floors, bare walls and many windows made for a very resonant space. Double glass windows sealed off the world outside but many sounds still emanated from somewhere deep in the bowels of the building. My vocal work goes back a few years now, appearing here and there on various…
Five Lines
The meeting of heavyweights of electroacoustic improvisation from Europe and the Pacific United States happened during MKM trio tour in Northern America. This recording, at CalArts in 2010, yielded interesting results: a nervous displacement of noises and rich sonorous timbres. Casey Anderson, from Los Angeles, works with sound in a number of media from composition and improvisation to installations. On Five Lines he played a combination of digital and analog instruments of his own design…
Between Two
Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) of Japan and Switzerland-based American drummer Jason Kahn are all leading musicians on the contemporary improvised music scene who perform internationally and have many album releases. The 4 pieces on this CD were performed live by Akiyama, Nakamura and Kahn at Ftarri in Suidobashi, Tokyo, during Kahn's stay in Japan in May 2014. Akiyama's softly resonating guitar makes subtle inroads into the pulsating electronic sounds cre…
Noema
"Noema is a collection of 37 short pieces composed from source material I recorded in and around Kyoto during a three-month stay there with my family in 2012. The over-arching theme of the record is the idea of exploring social space through everyday sound and especially in the case of Kyoto, not just focusing on what we've come to know the city for (temples, shrines, etc. Ð though some of these are in there as well). The pieces also deal with the idea of memory, much as the famous episode…
Draught
Earle and Sussmann are best known for their minimal electronic work as Stasis Duo but this disc sees them in far more bracing mode for this all electronics trio. Recorded while Kahn was touring Australia in 2009. Matt Earle works with blank media including samplers, mixers, turntables and tapedecks. He has a solo project under the name Muura, and plays in the groups Stasis Duo and Xwave (with Adam Sussmann), xNoBBQx and Sun of the Seventh Sister. He also runs the Breakdance the Dawn record label…
Things fall apart
Jason Kahn : drum set, voice, metal objects, radio, mixing board, contact microphones, magnetic coil, speaker, computer, chairs, plastic bags. Recorded in Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich, Switzerland on April 14, 2013. Mixed and mastered May 2-31, 2013. Cover design Jason Kahn. Audio CD, 6 panels digipak. 'Back in 1981 I was studying at the University of London in the School of African and Asian Studies. One lecturer had us read Chinua Achebe's novel 'Things Fall Apart.' Aside from the book moving …
Open Space
I've been composing graphical scores since 2004. Each score has been done for a particular group, and not just for a certain set of instruments but also for specific persons, each with their own personal sound and their own distinct approach to improvisation. The scores hover in the gray region between composition and improvisation. They create a situation where the players are free up to a point to improvise but in which they could also find themselves in juxtapositions with other player…
Dunedin
Fantastic all-electric three way that sees Bruce Russell of The Dead C (on analog electronics) joined by Richard Francis on modular synth and computer and Jason Kahn on analog synth, radio and mixing board: recorded live on January 28th 2011 at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in New Zealand, this is a single 38 minute improvisation that feels environmental in scale but with a heady synthesized aspect that makes for a ghostly metal machine music. Three distinct voices make for a bafflingly beau…
On Metal Shore
The idea for "On Metal Shore" goes back to the 2008 collaboration "Vista" with Boston artist Asher. The genesis of this piece was early morning recordings I made on the shores of the Lake of Zurich in 2007, where I played some very resonant steel railings with my hands. There was something magical for me about being down by the water an hour or so before sunrise. My hands were freezing and as I played a flock of birds in a tree nearby would fly away from my noise (even though I wasn't playing ve…
Espírito Santo
* 250 copies limited edition * “Espírito Santo” was recorded one October day in Lisbon in the cellar of the “Espírito Santo” building. Formerly a bank, this building had been empty many years and was recently opened again for artists to use as studio and exhibition space. The room we recorded in, resembling at first glance more a cave than a cellar, is remarkable for its acoustics. With eight-meter high ceilings, brick walls and concrete floor we found ourselves dealing with a very responsive s…
Sin Asunto
Jason Kahn - amplified percussion. Vincent Millioud - violin. Bo Wiget - cello. Christian Weber - contrabass. Recorded in Zürich, 2008. Cover design Jason Kahn.
Intervals
'Z'EV: percussion. Jason Kahn: percussion, analog synthetizer. Recorded by Jason Kahn April 13-14, 2009 in Zürich and Lausanne, Switzerland. Mixed and mastered by Z'EV. Artwork by Mirt.' label info Jason Kahn, born 1960, New York, USA. Composition, installations, percussion, electronics. Based in Zürich, Switzerland. Z'EV. After studying at CalArts with Concrete Poet Emmett Williams he concentrated on producing visual and sound poetries, and was included in the ÔSecond Generation' show at the Mu…
Phase
With the seemingly limitless mass of drone albums out there, it is tempting, even for a sympathetic listener like myself, to dismiss much of the lot as the sonic equivalent of a warm bath: immersive and pleasant but little more than a balm for overtaxed ears. With Phase, there is no such temptation. This is drone in its more intense, bracing form and it is far from soporific. The album consists of a single 39-minute piece. It is an amalgamation of recordings by Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller that we…
Timelines Los Angeles
'Computer (Laptop), guitar: Mark Trayle. Percussion, Synthesizer (Analog), Composed By (Graphical Score) : Jason Kahn. Piano (Prepared): Olivia Block. Saxophone (Alto, Sopranino), electronics (Live-electronics): Ulrich Krieger. Recorded by Clay Chaplin April 25, 2008 in Los Angeles at the Cal Arts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival.'