A pleasure to welcome back the duo of Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang after the pair's wonderful performance at the inaugural Ideologic Organ event in February 2012. Jessika Kenney is a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of vocal traditions and for Eyvind Kang the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline. This evening will open with a performance by Japanese singer/pianist Keiko Higuchi whose work ranges from radical reinterpretations of jazz standards to collaborations with noise legend Merzbow.

JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG

Duo 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.

Jessika Kenney website

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.



KEIKO HIGUCHI

Keiko Higuchi is a Japanese vocalist and pianist whose work spans everything from interpretations of the jazz songbook to collaborations with Merzbow. She has toured Europe a number of times and collaborated with Alan Silva, Sabu Toyozumi, Kazu Imai, Butoh dancer Imre Thormann and numerous others...