Jonathan Chen
Born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1974, JONATHAN CHEN is a sound artist and
improviser currently living in Middletown, Connecticut. His work
encompasses a wide spectrum within the experimental genre, employing
electronic as well as instrumental forces.
His compositions, while not necessarily dodging melody, often focus on
timbre. One such work, Drummer, is for feedback through a child’s drum
set. The feed back is produced through the snare, tom, and bass
drums using independent systems/amplifiers. Although the three
feedback systems are electronically independent, the sounds they
produce interact with one another when reaching particular amplitudes
and/or frequencies. Chen manipulates the sound by filtering frequencies
and raising or lowering volumes in each feedback system. In another
work, 19 Situations for 6 Improvisers: a system for hearing, the score
consists solely of changes in a hearing matrix between six musicians.
The musicians form duos and occupy three separate spaces, while in a
fourth space, Chen alters who hears who through headphones and an
engineer mixes all six through speakers. An example of one of these
hearing situations could be: 1 hears 4, 2 hears 5, 3 hears 1, 4 hears
6, 5 hears 3, and 6 hears 2, with each number representing one of the
musicians. During the forty minute performance, audience members move
freely between all four spaces.
In the duo with Tatsu Aoki, consisting of bass, violin, stroh violin,
and sometimes electronics, the traditional solo/accompaniment scenario
is usually avoided in favor of a more simultaneous approach. This
is made possible by each player’s will to spontaneity and willingness
to adapt to the other while maintaining an overall sense of direction.
The result could be called cinematic in concept, propelled by sounds of
old phonograph type melodies, walking bass lines, feedback, drones, and
a wide array of non-pitch sounds. The duo is currently working on a
recording to be released on Asian Improv Records.
Jonathan Chen received his Master of Music in violin performance from
Northwestern University in 1999 where he studied with Gerardo Ribeiro.
After leaving NU, he briefly attending the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago as an MFA student in the Art and Technology program. Chen’s
work has been performed or installed at The Soap Factory (Minneapolis),
Chicago Cultural Center, and the Asian American Jazz Festival, among
others.
As an electronicist or violinist he has improvised at Sonic Circuits
International Festival of Electronic Music, Sound Field, Outer Ear
Festival of Sound, PAC/edge, The Renaissance Society, Chicago Jazz
Festival (Miyumi), The Smithsonian Institute (Miyumi), and others. He
has worked with an array of artists including Tatsu Aoki, Gene Coleman,
Nic Collins, Megan Rodgers, Jenny Walshe, Amnon Wolman, Miyumi Project,
and Ensemble Noamnesia.
Self-released recordings and secret program notes: Jacket Hunter
(2001), We’ll (2002), Drummer 3’’ (2002), and Preface 3’’ (2003).
For more information contact: pngrecords@hotmail.com
He can also be heard (but does not appear) on numerous recordings, as
divergent as Chris Mills, Aoki’s Miyumi Project, and Amnon Wolman, to
name a few.