unSOUND Music Series II featuring Jason Kahn with Don Haugen
Eugene Contemporary Art, in collaboration with Epic Seconds, is pleased to present Jason Kahn for the second installment of ECA’s unSOUND new music series. Also performing will be Eugene’s own Don Haugen.
Jason Kahn
Born 1960 in New York, Jason Kahn is an artist, musician and writer. He lives and works in Zürich. His work with electronics involves chaotic feedback systems and placing his body in the circuit flow. Grabbing open leads with the hands makes and breaks circuits, causing the synthesizer to overload or momentarily collapse. Various contact microphones, electromagnetic inductors and the synthesizer’s own output via a mixing board are used to modulate the parameters of the synthesizer. This results in a very dynamic system, often difficult to control, but allowing great expressivity—much like any acoustic instrument, but electronic.
Live radio captures during the concert and recordings made beforehand in the performance space and its environs provide further working material for each concert. In the end, these performances are essentially site-specific works, improvising with the space at hand, both in the sense of its physicality and the sounds found there. Every performance is different, not only because the music is improvised but also because the source material used pertains directly to each space being played in.
As an electronic musician, guitarist, vocalist and percussionist Kahn collaborates with many international musicians in the context of free improvised music. He has also composed numerous electro acoustic pieces and graphical scores written for specific groups and musicians. His work can be heard on over two hundred solo, collaborative and compilation releases.
Kahn’s installations and interventions have been shown 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 written work has appeared in books, magazines and as liner notes to many audio publications. He has published four books: “Infinity Suite” (2020), “Voice and Sky” (2018), “Space Text Sound” (2017) and “In Place” (2015).
Jason Kahn’s current tour is made possible by the Swiss Arts Council and Fondation Suisa.
Don Haugen
Born in Spokane, Washington 1971, Don Haugen is a visual designer, sonic experimenter, and curator based in Eugene, Oregon. His work is guided by his interests in contrast, resonance, and the felt presence of sound, both physical and emotional. Through the use of contrasts of heavy/light, soft/hard, and quiet/loud. Haugen explores how these intangible feelings can act as catalysts to focus our inner-feelings on space and time. His current work merges home-built electro-acoustic instruments and reclaimed test equipment to create sonic texture-scapes.
Haugen’s work has been experienced through performance and exhibitions; at Drone Cinema (Videoscreening, Leiden, Netherlands & Seattle, WA. curated by Kim Cascone), Opus VII (art installation, Eugene, OR), Ende Tymes (Film screenings & performance, Brooklyn, NY) Splinter Squid Festival (Seattle, WA), NorCal Noise Festival (Sacramento, CA), Eugene Noise Festival, Denver Noise Festival, Noisepollenation (Los Angeles,CA), Portland Noise Festival, Godwaffle Noise (San Francisco, CA), several live radio performances and West Coast tours. His recorded sound works have been published by Eerie Materials, Human Monster, Control Valve, Roil Noise Offensive, Ratskin, Brise-Cul, Dolor Del Estamago, Obscurica, Enterruption, Obfuscated Records, Silent Records among others.
As a curator, Haugen focuses on creating opportunities for artists and audiences to build communities that otherwise might not exist. Everything from live scores to films, to many small and medium sized shows, the Eugene Noise Festival, among others.
The evening will close with a panel discussion and artist Q&A hosted by ECA’s director Courtney Stubbert.
unSOUND featuring Jason Kahn with Don Haugen is sponsored by Epic Seconds.
May 31st, 7pm at Epic Seconds, 30 E 11th Ave, Eugene, OR, 97401. Tickets are $10 in advance, sliding scale at the door, and will be on sale May 16th via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unsound-jason-kahn-with-don-haugen-tickets-340453173607