Sometimes I kinda prefer Jason Kahn’s conceptual-compositional type works such as Monads, a very good integration of sound art, percussion, and electronics fused with ideas across four sides of vinyl, but we mustn’t overlook he’s also a free improviser who comes to life in the sparring arena. On Köln (EDITIONS 013), this American-born player is playing his electronics set-up in the company of two European improvisers, Frantz Loriot (French, I think) and Swiss percussionist Christian Wolfarth. After a cold and uncertain beginning redolent of mistrust where no eye contact is made and barely a murmur is heard, the threesome start to engage their oil-painted cogwheels drawn from the history of Futurist art. A single long improvisation was recorded. Results overall are a bit too constrained and understated for me, but I do cherish those rare moments where abstracted high-toned circuit deaths start to fling cold blue sparks at the scraping catgut of Loriot. Wolfarth sounds like he’d rather be at a picnic in the countryside among ants. Kahn can be more outspoken in other situations, especially when he has a renegade radio between his paws, but when you’re in the mood for low-key grey underground contemplation tinged with melancholy, slip this in your Ferrari. 200 copies, hand-painted covers. (28/04/2023)
