no idea festival: focus on jason kahn

aaron gonzalez sends:

NO IDEA FESTIVAL 2009 Fort Worth
Tuesday, February 24
Lola's Saloon
Ft. Worth, TX
Doors 8pm; $10
www.noideafestival.com

FOCUS ON:

Jason Kahn
percussion, analog synthesizer, computer (Zürich)


On Tuesday Feb. 24th, Jason Kahn will play a duo piece with Austin percussionist Chris Cogburn, followed by an improvised collaboration with Zanzibar Snails’ Michael Chamy (electronics) and Nevada Hill (electric violin, electronics). This will be the second of the evening’s three sets of music.

Jason Kahn began as a drummer in Los Angeles-based alternative rock and avant-rock bands in the mid-’80s. The most important was the Universal Congress Of (featuring Saccharine Trust’s Joe Baiza), with whom he recorded three albums for SST and toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe.

When he relocated to Berlin in 1990, he turned resolutely toward free improvisation and later to the micro-sound scene, incorporating electronics to his percussion work. He spent the 1990s between Germany and Japan, playing in Arnold Dreyblatt’s Orchestra of Excited Strings; with Toshimaru Nakamura as the duo Repeat; and collaborating on-stage and on record with improvisers like Günter Müller, Dieb13, Otomo Yoshihide, Evan Parker, Sainkho Namchylak, and Taku Sugimoto.

He composes for electronics, acoustic instruments and environmental recordings. For larger groups of directed improvisation he has devised a system of graphical scores. Kahn creates his sound installations for specific spaces. The focus of these primarily non-visual works lies in the perception of a space through sound. In 1997 Kahn founded the independent label Cut, producing to date twenty-five CD's, both of Kahn's own work and other artists.