timelines los angeles|cs166

[...] 'Timelines' is a composition of his, in a graphical score form, which Kahn adapted for a concert in Los Angeles, and to be performed by a group he choose: himself on percussion and analog synthesizer, Olivia Block on prepared piano, Ulrich Krieger on alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone and live electronics and Mark Trayle (of The Hub) on laptop and guitar. This quartet play the graphic score of Kahn, which means that they more or less improvise their music along the graphical lines Kahn has drawn. It starts out with more or less 'loosely' based sounds, introducing each player and then things start to play together. Around twenty-five minutes sees then a sudden change, and for about twenty minutes things grow and grow into a mighty piece of electro-acoustic drone music. The third and final part is the complete anti-thesis of this, with music that is very quiet, a sort of chill-out, come-down music. Among the many releases of Jason Kahn another great one, but also one that stands aside his usual play. Excellent. Franz de Waart ( Vital Weekly)

Jason Kahn talks about his Timelines as frameworks which act as "social situations, bringing together a particular group dynamic within the parameters of a graphical score. The musicians are free to interpret the score as they wish. I only ask them to adhere to the dynamic ranges indicated and the timing of when to start and stop playing." The scores (available on Kahn's website at http://jasonkahn.net/scores/index.html) provide simple, time-boxed, sequence diagrams, using visual patterns as cues for density and duration with specific lanes of activity prescribed to each musician. Kahn first explored the idea back in 2005 in a release on his Cut label with Tomas Korber, Norbert Möslang, Günter Müller, Steinbrüchel, and Christian Weber. He returned to the strategy with a slightly different crew for Timelines_NY, performed at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn in 2007, and, while visiting Los Angeles (where he grew up) a year later, he contacted Mark Trayle about performing or lecturing at CalArts. Trayle suggested that he compose a piece with a group of his choosing.
Timelines Los Angeles' changes in instrumentation and personnel results in a very different feel than the previous two versions. Kahn, on percussion and analog synth, is joined here by Olivia Block on prepared piano, Ulrich Krieger on alto and sopranino sax and live electronics, and Trayle on laptop and guitar. While the long-form transitions of textures, dynamics, and densities remains, the use of piano and saxophone changes the elemental building blocks of the piece. Attack, sustain, and acoustic resonance play a significant role in the overall form and transitional signposts. Block's percussive attack and jangling string vibrations and Krieger's flutters, breathy hiss, and pad pops introduce the piece, slowly leading to looping, undulating waves of piano and burred, circularly-breathed currents of reeds. Kahn's sheets of analog synth and Trayle's crackling laptop textures play off the acoustic instruments, filling out the collective orchestration as the piece builds to a dense roar, finally subsiding in shifting layers of hushed atmospherics. MRo (Paris Transatlantic)

Americano de nascimento, mas há longos anos radicado na Europa e plenamente inserido na cena electrónica do velho continente, Jason Kahn volta neste disco a utilizar partituras gráficas de sua autoria, tal como acontecera com "Timelines" (então com as participações de Tomas Korber, Steinbruchel, Christian Weber, Gunter Muller e Norbert Möslang). O princípio seguido assemelha-se ao desse CD: a criação daquilo a que chama de "situação social", segundo parâmetros predefinidos, mas prevendo a plena expressão da interactividade individual e da espontaneidade (re)criativa dos intervenientes. São eles neste regresso de Kahn a Los Angeles o saxofonista alemão Ulrich Krieger, um respeitado intérprete da música contemporânea pós-John Cage com actividade também na improvisação (é membro do grupo Text of Light, ao lado de Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, DJ Olive e Tim Barnes), a compositora Olivia Block, aqui no piano preparado, e um ex-integrante do colectivo de computadores The Hub, Mark Trayle.
Nos últimos anos reconciliado com o seu instrumentário primeiro, a percussão (começou por ser um baterista do jazz "straight-ahead"), Jason Kahn volta aqui a propor uma visão particular da electroacústica, mais próxima dos conceitos da música improvisada do que dos da escrita e académica. São três os momentos desta longa peça: um primeiro em que as várias contribuições se vão agregando, outro em que a homogeneidade sonora obtida cresce em intensidade e densidade, e finalmente um último em que os elementos “em cena” se apaziguam e finalmente desaparecem. O que quer dizer que, se antes caracterizava o trabalho de Kahn a ilusão de um tempo suspenso, este é reintroduzido como um factor determinante, e tanto assim que ficamos com a impressão de estar a construir-se uma trama. Sinal dos tempos, porventura: este tipo de intervenção já se quis estático, mas agora move-se e propõe narrativas. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

Kahn's been working on his Timelines series for a while (you can see the graphic score for this one here). The score assigns each player three blocks of time, each between ten and twenty minutes, spread over an hour. Not sure what, if any, further instruction is given, but listeners expecting any sort of steady-state rhythmic piece, might be surprised at the slow, contemplative pace, not overtly rhythmic, of this recording. It thickens about midway through, taking on something of the character of Tibetan low horn ceremonies before abruptly cutting off due to the timed nature of the score, leaving a quiet swirl. Soon, Kahn does in fact return to his signature cymbal taps in this final section, capping off a very satisfying experience. Excellent recording. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Experimental percussionist Jason Kahn recorded Timelines in 2004 with a Swiss crew. Four years later, here comes a different Timelines presented in Los Angeles with Olivia Block (prepared piano), Ulrich Krieger (sax) and Mark Trayle (laptop & guitar). This is a new graphic score made designed specifically for this ensemble. The music is as minimalist as the first time and consists of superimposed abstract and stripped-down periods of action. They run in parallels with hardly no (obvious) interactions in between them. Form-wise, I’m reminded of some of John Cage’s pieces. Within this rather arid framework, the musicians try hard to play unusual sonic textures - and succeed. A demanding listen that won’t spare your attention span. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

Particulièrement riche ces dernières années, la production phonographique qui documente le travail de Jason Kahn (percussion, synthétiseur analogique) multiplie les angles et contextes d’appréhension d’une esthétique finalement homogène, mais n’aide guère – et c’est bien ainsi ! – à mieux comprendre ce que l’on peut trouver de si fascinant à cet univers délicat, tout en jeux de nuances, qui n’offre que peu d’aspérités, au bord parfois de l’évanouissement…

Curiosité et plaisir donc, sont vivement renouvelés à l’audition de cet enregistrement d’avril 2008 à Los Angeles, d’autant que Kahn ne s’y retrouve pas en compagnie de membres de son cercle habituel et que l’instrumentarium convoqué s’ouvre aux sources acoustiques du piano – préparé par Olivia Block – et des saxophones alto & sopranino d’Ulrich Krieger (+ live-electronics). Le quatuor, complété par Mark Trayle (laptop, guitare), joue une composition graphique du percussionniste, dans la veine d’autres Timelines remarquables, comme la version zurichoise de 2004 publiée par le label Cut, ou l’édition new-yorkaise téléchargeable ici.

De cette partition en tant que telle il ne faut pas attendre qu’elle recèle l’explication de la réussite de son « interprétation » (par improvisation) : consignant sommairement (mais pour chacun, spécifiquement) des durées, textures et densités, elle est à peine une façon de scénariser, pas même d’encadrer, peut-être de laisser planer l’idée d’une forme ou d’une tension sous-jacente… mais elle n’en aboutit pas moins, entre les mains de ces quatre musiciens, à une création vivante de la plus belle eau, qui captive par l’élégance de sa mise en son, la finesse de ses entremêlements et la puissance qu’elle peut dégager, ses moments de suspension et d’étirement, l’impression d’espace géographique et mental qu’elle procure. Cliquetis, ondes et auras, en vibrionnant doucement, résonnent chez l’auditeur, longuement. Guillaume Tarche (Le Son du Grisli)

Subsequent to an invitation by Mark Trayle – one of the four musicians active in this recording, specifically on laptop-driven guitar – Jason Kahn composed Timelines Los Angeles as a graphic score destined to the 2008 edition of the Cal Arts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival. Having both the possibility of choosing the participants to the performance and the intention of designing the parts exactly for those executors and their respective personalities, the composer decided to employ Olivia Block on prepared piano and Ulrich Krieger on saxophone and electronics, whereas he is featured on percussion and analog synthesizer. Still, if a record exists that doesn’t ask for excessive deliberation about the timbral individualities this must be it, although we do identify and separate the sources (well, sort of) as the whole flows.
The best method to describe this full hour is partitioning it in sections corresponding to a general dynamic appearance. The beginning is dominated by Block, which generates a reiterated scraping first, a rumbling substratum of thick string resonance later, upon which a rarefaction of synthetic emissions and diminutive reed noises are heard. Gradually, the interferences become a series of more consistent blotches – it is actually complicated to differentiate what comes from Trayle and what from Kahn in certain instances – then, all of a sudden, an extensively violent surge (especially enhanced by Krieger’s next-to-collapse drones on the sax) keeps us on the seat of our pants for long minutes. Imagine an extract from a Phill Niblock piece, deprived of the precious components: just harshness and unfriendly frequencies, stimulating nevertheless. Everything stops suddenly, leaving the listener alone with some variety of infected steam hissing around, finely complemented by repetitive hits on a cymbal, in classic Kahn fashion, until conclusion.
It takes time to agree to this music. It’s definitely uneasy on the ears - despite the whispered attributes defining its large part - and the structure is so evidently subdivided that a lightweight mind might find hard to follow the fluctuation of events in its entirety. Once the initial coat of unfriendliness is melted, though, there’s no stopping in enjoying it completely; that’s why I’d classify this CD as “wisely unwelcoming”. Then, as usual, it depends on what you expect from the act of listening. If a background is needed, look somewhere else. If attentiveness and breakdown are your forte, a lot of meat is here to chomp on. Massimo Ricci (Touhing Extremes)

[…] Anyway, I promised a report on how it felt to listen to the same album at each end of a sixteen hour overnight work period. Yesterday, before heading off to work early afternoon I listened to Jason Kahn’s Timelines Los Angeles, a graphically composed piece for a quartet that was released last year on the Creative Sources label. Then, after working very hard, both physically and mentally for sixteen hours through the night I came home at 7AM and immediately listened again. These things interest me a great deal, the way people listen and what alters this, upsets the equilibrium has long been an area of thought I enjoy and I hope one day to collect some thoughts together on this area of enquiry into a book of some kind. I should add that although this CD has been released for quite a while now, it has sat on a shelf here unplayed until yesterday. The first listen, just before going to work was my first experience of the music, the second was therefore then the post-work airing. I should add that after waking this afternoon I did then play it through two or three more times.
First of all, Timelines Los Angeles is a one hour long piece of music scored graphically for the precise musicians that appear on this recording, Jason Kahn himself, (percussion, analogue synth) Olivia Block, (prepared piano) Ulrich Krieger, (alto and soprano sax plus live electronics) and Mark Trayle (laptop and guitar). The piece has a tendency towards sections of sounds that do not change much for their duration, but each last maybe three or four minutes with many of them overlapping at any one time. While not really ever becoming an out and out drone there is a sensation of overlaid continual sounds rather than a more broken up, talkative discourse between the musicians. I’ve never seen the score, but I suspect it consists at least in part of windows within which each musician may make sounds. The overall feel of the music is one of a slowly revolving kaleidoscope, the colours and textures of the music sliding over each other, changing all the time, but the exact start and finish point of different elements not always easy to spot.
This really is music that requires close attention to really engage with the tiny events that unfold, the little collisions between different sounds, the way the different instrumentation play off of each other. It is music that could easily be left to play in the background and provide a thoroughly pleasant bed for whatever you might be doing, so casual listening might set a certain mood, or given a general feel of the overall structure of the music, but to really dig into this recording, to follow the constant changes and notice the detail you need to listen relatively closely.
When I first listened, alert and awake tot he music I knew I wanted to try and compare the experience with the later, exhausted one, and so I set myself some rules for listening. I wouldn’t read, or write or surf the web while listening, but instead lay quietly on my bed, midway between two speakers, close my eyes and listen. I found the music quite hard to remain totally focussed upon it. The lack of many big sudden events or shifts in dynamic forces you to have to really stretch yourself to stay engaged. There are a couple of big shifts in the music, a distinct turn towards a denser, roaring sound at about thirty-five minutes in, and then a sudden drop into a much more subtle, finely detailed backdrop of hiss and murmur ten minutes later are the moments that should have remained noticeable through each listen. Although it was quite tough going at times to keep the music under an aural microscope the rewards were great, and the act of following the music so closely was very enjoyable.
Sixteen hours later, after work, and after driving home in a condition I probably shouldn’t have been driving in, I laid down on the bed just the same and attempted to listen in the same way. I should state right now that I managed about fifteen minutes before slipping off into slumber. I realised that this would probably happen, and didn’t try and stop it, mainly because I was interested in what I could remember later of the listening experience- where did my concentration wane? Was it a case of listening just as closely as I had on the first occasion, just to stop listening at whatever point it was that I fell asleep? There is a sensation that I often experience when tired, occasionally at concerts, when I get a feeling of somehow falling slightly, only to suddenly jump back into reality with a slightly odd jolt. I usually find my thoughts wandering off at tangents, before realising I am daydreaming complete rubbish, slipping towards sleep but then waking from this suddenly, and finding myself immediately refocussing on the music again, listening closely but wondering where the last few seconds/minutes went. Listening in exhausted mode this morning was a bit like the distant, background listening I mentioned earlier in this post. I couldn’t keep my mind focussed on the sounds themselves, I couldn’t separate individual parts very easily, and when I managed this I couldn’t remain concentrated for long. the general tone of the music was there, the real gristle to chew upon wasn’t.
Sometimes when listening closely to music it will form pictures in my head, usually abstract forms, shapes and particularly colours. The pre-work listen to Timelines Los Angeles had allowed me this experience. Perhaps as a result of viewing the sleeve imagery first I saw formations of slowly moving lights of different but vaguely related colours. As the music changed and parts came and went so did the lights, and the interaction, albeit it an imagined one, between them. During the exhausted listen none of this happened naturally. If I relaxed and let my mind wander the work I had done overnight crept into my head and I lost all focus on the music. Perhaps I was resigned to the idea that I could not make this tired listen work for me, but it felt like I was wasting my time even attempting to take anything from the music in this condition. Certainly I remember little specific about the experience now, just that it didn’t inspire me very much.
The music is quite good overall by the way, a nice combination of electronic and acoustic sounds across a wide mixture of instrumentation and approaches. The subsequent listens this afternoon/evening have assured me that there is plenty to be enjoyed in this piece of music, with much of the detail remaining quite subtle. I just found it impossible to follow the same listening processes in my debilitated condition. Tomorrow I will be undertaking a further sixteen hour shift just the same. This time I aim to reverse the situation, and listen for the first time to a new album when in an exhausted physical and mental state, and then listen again on Sunday when completely rested, to see what new elements I find in the music on the subsequent listen. I will maybe write about my findings, sorry to those that find this area of exploration of little interest. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Dense, palpitating, quivering and almost ectoplasmic, this session captures a peerless quartet reading of a graphic score composed by Jason Kahn, which in its layers of strain and repose often sonically embodies California’s largest city. One reason this exactly 60-minute performance is so authoritative is that, like Kahn, who plays percussion throughout, each participant is a composer in his or her own right.
During the course of the bulky, mostly solid and taut, but sometimes distended and airy, piece, the arrangement and tonal intersection draws on prepared piano cascades and patterning from Olivia Block; the shrill or distanced split tones and other off-beat effects of Ulrich Krieger’s soprano and alto saxophones; plus synthesized signal-processing from Mark Trayle’s electric guitar. Moreover, individual static-laden sequences and blurry signal-processed pulses are given shape by additional flanges and wave forms created by Kahn’s analog synthesizer, Trayle’s laptop and Krieger’s live electronics.
A Zürich-resident who grew up in Los Angeles, sound artist Kahn has composed scores for theater and dance, was a member of composer Arnold Dreyblatt’s Orchestra of Excited Strings, and has worked in more Free Music-oriented situations with other sonic explorers such as Austrian turntablist Dieb 13 and Swiss-German electronics manipulator and percussionist Günter Müller.
Largo as well as agitato, “Timelines Los Angeles” cycles through a series of fungible or distinctive patterns, while maintaining its block-like solidity. Although constructed out of crepuscule wave form sequences, signal-processed drones and rugged laptop-induced electronic static and glitches, individual textures humanize the first section which takes up two-thirds of this single-track CD. Metronomic piano chords plus shattered, strummed and stopped internal string patterning on the piano harp from Block; strokes, rattles and clanks on unyielding metal and wooden surfaces from Kahn; and extended techniques from Krieger that encompass watery split tones, body-tube thumps, pressurized tongue stops and flutters plus wide-vibrato reed bites, confirm that the polyphony is acoustically as well as electronically produced.
By the time gradual diminuendo and a pause signals movement into the score’s final variation, it has become apparent that while monolithic, the creation isn’t impenetrable. Each instrument appears to be following its own line, which united create the linear composition. Subsiding to a gentler interface in its final minutes, the understated burbles and resonations become as audible as the delayed chirps, clangs and buzzes. Finally the vibrating mass completely disappears.
Not as programmatic as Kahn probably imagines, “Timelines Los Angeles” offers an unparalleled, if austere, listening experience whether it properly describes the city of angels or not. Ken Waxman (JazzWord)

Es überrascht mich nicht, dass das, was Kahn für seinen Beitrag zum Cal Arts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival 2008 komponiert hat, mich nicht überrascht. Nach einer graphischen Partitur, die ganz situations- und personenbezogen angelegt war, frickeln und tüpfeln die 4 Spieler ein Paradebeispiel für elektroakustischen Minimalismus. Neben Kahn an Percussion & Analogsynthesizer agieren sein Gastgeber Mark Trayle mit Gitarre & SuperCollider, Olivia Block am präparierten Piano und Kahns alter
Bekannter aus Berliner Tagen, Ulrich Krieger (Text of Light, Metal Machine Trio, Zeitkratzer, zerfalls_gebiete), nuckelt und züllt, live-elektronisch zubereitet, an Alto- & Sopranosaxophonen wie ein Vampir an einer bereits völlig ausgelutschten Ader. ‚Gitarre‘ meint natürlich nur ein zartes Flirren von Saiten, ‚Piano‘ ein gelegentliches Zupfen im Innenklavier und fingerspitzes Tocken, ‚Percussion‘ ein sporadisches Ping an einer Stimmgabel, während Synthesizer und Laptop bitzeln wie aus einem Haarriss in der Schwachstromleitung. Die Klänge, die in der ersten Hälfte der insgesamt 60 Min. mit geradezu andächtiger Finesse im Raum verstäubt werden, füllen kaum ein Schnapsgläschen. Sie erzeugen quasi eine negative Raumbilanz. Dann aber beginnt ein unvermutetes Brausen von dröhnenden Haltetönen, als würde Kahns Partitur von Mikrogekritzel zu breiten Strichen mit Tünchnerpinsel wechseln. Krieger röhrt wie ein verzweifeltes Nebelhorn, das ganze Quartett intonarumort, als wollten sie schon mal für die heurige 100-Jahrfeier des Futuristischen Manifests üben. Nach 44 Min. dann der abrupte Riss. Nur noch ein fauchendes Ventil und feines Getröpfel, als hätten die Musiker aufgehört, um den Regen abzuwarten. Ein Fingenagel tickelt nervös, Stühle knarzen, der Wind spielt mit dem Saxophon. ‚Wanderer‘s Nightsong II‘ (LA Version). Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

Kahn released the first version of Timelines on his now defunct Cut label in 2004. Its graphic score has since been adapted for renditions in different locations by different musicians. The hour-long Los Angeles version was performed by the quartet of Olivia Block (on piano, unusually), saxophonist Ulrich Krieger, Mark Trayle (laptop) and Kahn himself. The interpretation is fairly faithful to the score, which you can view on Kahn's website, if you
absolutely must. Looking at it while listening makes the music seem more reductive than it is. It's probably more a subconscious link than an attempt at branding, but many of its graphic elements look as if they could have been lifted from the artwork for various Cut albums. Block's piano string manipulations power the opening section; a section of drone which eats up a good 15 minutes is competently executed bu feels like a default option. I'm most drawn to the preceding passage, in which smaller, individual sounds are exchanged with growing confidence, and where the sense of group dialogue is strongest. Nick Cain (The Wire)