The Squid's Ear Magazine


Kahn, Jason: Beautiful Ghost Wave (Herbal International)

Jason Kahn uses feedback and electronic noise to create a large work created from static, hiss, and unusual electronic sound, dynamic and ever-shifting aspects of both lovely and aberrant electronics, captivating in ever-shifting sounds that inform but do not overwhelm.
 

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Personnel:



Jason Kahn


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Label: Herbal International
Catalog ID: 1101
Squidco Product Code: 20800

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2011
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded in Zurich, Switzerland in 2010.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Now here's a change. Over the years we have learned to appreciate the music of Jason Kahn as something that is minimal, slowly moving music composed using percussion and analogue synthesizer. Drone like, introspective, derived from slowly unfolding improvisations - alone or in combination with others.

This is not the case on Beautiful Ghost Wave. Still at his disposal is the analog synthesizer but also a mixing board, contact microphones, short wave radio and electromagnetic coils. Kahn goes noise here. This thirty seven some minute work is divided into various movements (as one track), separated with acoustic rumbling - Kahn recorded this work through a microphone in front of his speakers and from the room directly behind - I assume the latter is when he uses only those.

Feedback like, noise based sounds, static hiss and such like rule this work, which has a much more dramatic play than much of his previous work, if not all of his previous work. Kahn fans will be alarmed I guess. Its not the kind of blast of noise that say someone like Merzbow would do - maybe that would have been the work if it was directly taped from the mixing board - but it has a distinct different quality that makes it quite good and also different from the other trouble makers. I guess it has to do with the amount of variations Kahn employs in this work and the somewhat curious way of recording it, bringing in a certain amount of acoustic noise. An excellent work and a brave move for Kahn. Hopefully to be followed by more such work."-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly


Artist Biographies

" is a musician, artist and writer. He was born 1960 in New York and grew up in Los Angeles. He re-located to Europe in 1990 and is currently based in Zürich.

As an electronic musician, vocalist and drummer Kahn collaborates regularly with many musicians, both in improvised settings and in the context of graphical scores which he composes for specific groups.

Kahn has exhibited his installations in museums, galleries, art spaces and public sites internationally. These works focus on the idea of space: the conceptual and physical juncture points, its production and dissolution, and our relation to it as a political, social and environmental medium.

Kahn's other activities include sound pieces for radio, film, dance and theater. He has also designed numerous CD, LP and cassette covers. As a writer, his work has appeared in books, magazines and as liner notes to many audio publications.

Performing regularly around the world, Kahn has given concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and South Africa.

In 2011 Kahn started the Editions imprint to publish his own recordings and writings."

-Jason Kahn Website (http://www.jasonkahn.net/biography/index.html)
11/4/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Beautiful Ghost Wave 37:10

Related Categories of Interest:


Electro-Acoustic
Sound, Noise, &c.
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Herbal International.


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