Saturday, August 1, 2015

Recording: Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang

Artist: Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang

Song: Her Sword

Recorded at Jam Factory ("The Music Gallery's Departures Series"), July 22, 2015.

Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang - Her Sword

A return of the Music Gallery's offsite "Departures" series headed across the Don Valley to Jam Factory, home of co-curator Tad Michalak's Feast in The East series. The brick-and-beam loft was a perfectly casual environment to settle in for some serene sounds. The night was put together to provide a rare local show for Seattle-based explorers Jessika Kenney (vocals) and Eyvind Kang (viola). Their hour-long set showed several of their different approaches to their idiosyncratic mix of Persian mysticism and gamelan percolations. Kang's plucked strings and Kenney's vocals were at the heart of all the music — for one extended selection they left the stage and played while pacing in circles around the audiences, creating a uniquely-spacialized experience. The selection presented here saw Kenney add some subtly-psychdelic effects to her vocals, shifting this 12th century Persian poem from the gamelan-abetted version heard on her beautiful ATRIA album and into a "pop" realm not too far removed from, say, Jerusalem in My Heart's recent excursions with Suuns. The set ended with the pair being joined by Andrew Timar and Bill Parsons for a couple numbers, including a re-arrangement of James Tenney's "August Harp".

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