jason kahn “vanishing point” compact disc

• vanishing point (46:51)

23five incorporated press release...

jason kahn vanishing point 23fiveincorporated press release 06.09 the american sound-artist jason kahn is an exacting technician when it comes to the principles of noise. however, his application of noise in composition is not that of merzbow or masonna, with teeth-gnashing explosions of distortion, feedback, and volume; rather, kahn’s psychoacoustic techniques employ the specific frequencies of white, pink, brown, and blue noise in works that reflect the ideals of minimalism. these are sounds that regularly occur through the constant vibration of machinery; and kahn is more than happy to appropriate such events through field recording. he also generates complementary noises through systems that involve the rattling architecture of a drum kit or through his trusted analog synthesizer. vanishing point is a 47 minute composition, which kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before kahn began working on this piece in 2007. for all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, vanishing point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. soon into the piece, kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. the upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of kahn’s surface noises. this glacial, minimalist shift renders vanishing point elegant and meditative. in kahn’s own words, “at first i thought of the title in reference to louise’s passing, that point where she vanished from our lives, but on further reflection i came to see the composition as dealing with other vanishing points. i address the idea of one’s sense of time vanishing, being immersed in sound and entering a place of timelessness. there is also the idea of boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound vanishing, as in this piece i draw on both sources. and finally, in the sense of aural perspective extending to the point where we imagine it ending, as the composition stretches on towards its vista, slowly vanishing.” founded in 1993, 23five incorporated is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound works in the public arena, and to the support and education of artists working with and discussing the medium of sound. for the past 14 years, 23five incorporated has remained at the forefront in bringing the most adventurous elements of sound art to the san francisco bay area. 23five has served as an important benefactor to artists such as john duncan, christina kubisch, francisco lopez, achim wollscheid, matt heckert, zbigniew karkowski, atau tanaka, and many more.

jason kahn / jason lescalleet “red room” compact disc

• what’s new in baltimore?
  
• friends in low places
  
• red house
  
• dronevil3

utah kawasaki / tetuzi akiyama / jason kahn “luwa” compact disc

• luwa fabrik (21:59)
  
• zurich (24:46)

jon mueller / jason kahn “topography” compact disc

• middletown • march 03, 2007 (8:07)
  
• new york 1 • march 12, 2007 (10:42)
  
• new york 2 • march 12, 2007 (10:15)
  
• milwaukee • march 04, 2007 (8:45)
  
• boston • march 08, 2007 (10:42)

“graceful degradation : variations” compact disc

• steinbrüchel - shimmer (10:35)
  
• kenneth kirschner - april 17th, 2006 (5:35)
  
• heribert friedl - rehsa (8:07)
  
• john hudak - snd8 (8:55)
  
• steve roden - gration degradaceful (5:16)
  
• jason kahn - am wasser (5:05)
  
• ubeboet - untitled #305 variation (17:26)

sourdine press release...

sd-001: graceful degradation: variations 2.2008 cd limited to 500 copies featuring: heribert friedl, john hudak, jason kahn, kenneth kirschner, steve roden, steinbrüchel and ubeboet. the source recording for the compositions featured on this album still exist on a single 90 minute cassette, made by the intermagnetics corporation from santa monica, california. there are still some bits of led zeppelin here and there which remain among my recordings, but mostly the tape is full of recording i made. i remember working with this tape for several months over the summer and into fall of 2005, in my apartment in brooklyn; i would spend hours going through the material and trying to find different combinations of the recordings of the sounds which are stored on it. after a certain period of time working with the material i put together some pieces for an album release and thought i was done. but in the end i went back and continued working, it is the material from this second period of work which has been used by the artists featured on this release. the concept of graceful degradation in relation to memory as well as system failure, seemed quite fitting to the work i was doing, as well as to the work of other sound recording artists. there is a relationship that develops between our own memories and recordings made and archived using various data storage and retrieval technologies which i am very interested in; i initiated this project with this interest in mind. as a continuation of the graceful degradation of my original recordings i asked seven artists to use the material in their own ways to create a new piece. each artist put the material into their systems of working with sound and came up with the results featured on this album. i am very honored to have their contributions and pleased to present them on this first release on sourdine.

“viva negativa! • a tribute to the new blockaders • vol. 1” quadruple long playing record set

• asmus tietchens - kranzniederlegung
  
• keith fullerton whitman - sept. 27th 1960
  
• nocturnal emissions - this morphing viod
  
• plethora - last night i dremt of anti-fest this morning i woke up deaf
  
• silvum - discreet charma
  
  
• srmeixner - the church of the absurd
  
• the haters - mantra to rot
  
• daniel menche - smoldered blockaders
  
• nobuo yamada - prickle / crevice
  
• komafuzz - damage ax
  
  
• ashtray navigations - new paint for antisilence
  
• zbigniew karkowski - chopped mod
  
• anomali - t.n.b.r.i.p.
  
• john wiese - annul
  
• benzo - nothing controls something
  
  
• vortex campaign - the black box
  
• evil moisture - new kids on the blockadres
  
• cisfinitum - out
  
• massimo - history of everything
  
• msbr - tnsbrupenus
  
  
• jason kahn - rille
  
• controlled bleeding - the latest hole in my head
  
• pita - tnb ii53
  
• v/vm - what a way to go shakey
  
• treriksröset - negativt fortroandekapital
  
  
• grunt - saarto
  
• thurston moore - corion sound for t.n.b.
  
• richard ramirez - cultural blockade
  
• scanner - kohekohe
  
  
• oren ambarchi - something from nothing
  
• emil beaulieau - anti-vartan
  
• dieter müh - hohl
  
• z'ev - chips for the new block
  
• lockweld - catharsis bomb
  
  
• kraang - silvers on glass and steel
  
• k.k. null - song x
  
• prurient - majdanek slaughterhouse
  
• freiband - nichts

vinyl-on-demand press release...

vod 24: new blockaders / various artists viva negativa vol.1 lp-4 (box-set) a massive project done by richard rupenus. includes tnb material reworked by 75 of the best international avant-garde/industrial/noise artists oren ambarchi, anomali, ashtray navigations, emil beaulieau, benzo, maurizio bianchi, cisfinitum, controlled bleeding, dieter muh, evil moisture, freiband, grunt, the haters, jason kahn, zbigniew karkowski, komafuzz, kraang, lockweld, massimo, daniel menche, thurston moore, msbr, nocturnal emissions, kk null, pita, plethora, prurient, richard ramirez, scanner, silvum, srmeixner, asmus tietchens, treriksroset, vortex campaign, v/vm, keith fullerton whitman, john wiese, nobuo yamada, z´ev.