Album Details

• Artist: Jason Kahn
• Album: Beautiful Ghost Wave
• Label: Herbal
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-03-26

Jason Kahn is an alchemist who seems to prefer using the radio wave as a starting ingredient for his melancholy buy meaty sounds. "Beautiful Ghost Wave" wanders in and among sounds both harsh, subtle, conceived and eavesdropped upon. For those who are either unfamiliar with ambient noise or tired of it, the emotional power of this single 37 minute song will be refreshing and inspiring.

There is the familiar variation of tone and volume, the silences used strategically, the pulse serving as a sort of rhythm section, a base for tangents and explorations common in ambient electronica or noise, but Kahn uses them in surprising ways; maybe it is the use or implied use of radio waves, a kind of found sound and field recording at once, that gives this piece an organic, slightly acoustic feel; there is a warmth and immediacy missing from similar tonal explorations. There is an artist who is being affected by the sounds being created here; this is what makes "Beautiful Ghost Wave" an emotional experience.

The recording, according to Kahn, "was made with microphones placed in front of the loudspeakers and in the room directly behind where I was sitting, thus lending a sense of acoustics to the sounds I generated and recording my movement as I made these sounds. These recordings were then edited and used to compose with on the computer." Usually such explanations are as close as electronic compositions come to a human element. Not so with Jason Kahn's latest. This has the warm, passionate feel of an artist intimate with and invested in its seemingly random tones.

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