JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG
JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG
plus special guest BEE MASKDuo performance from Jessika Kenney – a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of vocal traditions – and Eyvind Kang – a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline.
Their LP ‘Aestuarium’ was the second release on Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ label. A meditation on a psalm of lamentation and the unary tone in the metaphor of salt and fresh water, inspired by Gaelic psalmery, Tibetan notational gestures, and the microtonality of the tetrachord, ‘Aestuarium’ was recorded on the shore of Colvos Passage in 2005 by renowned engineer Mell Dettmer. This was followed up by the equally striking beauty of ‘The Face of The Earth’ in 2012.
“Aestuarium is a work of delicate beauty, as pristine as the surface of a lake at dawn on a summer’s morning.” – TheQuietus
JESSIKA KENNEY
Jessika Kenney is a vocalist and composer based on Vashon Island near Seattle, Washington. Interested in both traditional sources and experimental methods, Kenney has performed and recorded classical Persian vocal repertoire with ney master Ostad Hossein Omoumi, new and traditional Javanese music with Gamelan Pacifica and Gamelan Madu Sari, and the music of contemporary composers such as John Cage, Hans Eisler, Lou Harrison, Eyvind Kang, and Tadao Sawai. Her teachers include the jazz vocalist Jay Clayton at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and Nyi Supadmi in Central Java, Indonesia, where she studied traditional Javanese vocal music and collaborated on music and theater in experimental settings.
EYVIND KANG
Working since 1995, Eyvind Kang can be heard on over 50 records, collaborating with the likes of Sun City Girls, Bill Frisell, Secret Chiefs, Blonde Redhead, Robin Holcomb, Laurie Anderson and many others. In addition to arranging and performing with other musicians, he has released many recordings of original music notably the acclaimed choral piece “Athlantis” (Ipecac) and “The Yelm Sessions” (Tzadik). The Narrow Garden – his latest release due out on Ipecac at the end of January 2012 – is no exception, offering one of his most original and perhaps one of his most playful recordings to date.
The music on The Narrow Garden sounds like it was composed for a film soundtrack in the way that Eyvind Kang creates evocative visual spaces with sound. True to form the album is composed of full-bodied pieces of music that evolve from minimal song structure to more grandiose musical statements throughout, ‘Forest Saman’i’ is a great example of this. ‘Pure Nothing’, ‘Mineralia’ and ‘Nobis Natalis’ nod to the choral tones on Athlantis and show definite eastern influences, whilst ‘Usnea’ and ‘The Narrow Garden’ experiment with some truly eerie samples.
His new work of ensemble pieces ‘Visible Breath’ will be the fourth release on Ideologic Organ.
BEE MASK
“Bee Mask produces medium specific, high-caliber synthesized compositions with mind-altering intent beyond the scope of what one might “check out” to while having their tarot cards read.” – Altered ZonesBee Mask—Clevland USA’s Chris Madak—announces his first appearance on Australian shores this June, covering dates in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
Over the past couple of years, Bee Mask has emerged from the DIY underground via an esoteric collection of cassette and LP editions, each of which offers a profound and personal sonic world: a world littered with pulsing waves, control voltage emissions and haunting melodic phrases that echo in the mind like forgotten dreams.
Developing a range of hand-made electronic devices, Bee Mask has been able to create a sound that is entirely his own. It’s through instruments that he has been able to grow such an otherworldly sound – an audio vision of a possible future, or a parallel universe in which the very nature of sound, space and time is bent, re-arranged and re-composed with utterly absorbing results.