A double bill of improvised electroacoustic music inspired by a reflection on liminal states of being and the evolution of self:
“To integrate is to submit and self erase; for some of us, we have become something else entirely, having survived and not fully erased. The interstice, and the in-between state of being. So close yet never home. What is this terrain of the psychogeography we traverse through? Have we come to this land to forget?” – From the performers
Leo Chang opens the night with an interactive sound-movement performance that reimagines the Korean folk practice of sangmonori. The performance features a new iteration of his jeonmonori — a custom-built feedback hat and amplified gong instrument.
Leo Chang electronics
Alex Zhang Hungtai, Tashi Dorji, and Raven Chacon make their trio debut with new works. The ensemble merges their distinctive artistic practices for an evening of spontaneous composition, blending improvisation and expansive sonic exploration.
Tashi Dorji guitar
Alex Zhang Hungtai electronics, trumpet
Raven Chacon guitar, electronics
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.
USE CODE EARLYBIRDER AT CHECKOUT FOR $5 OFF TICKETS — ENDS AUGUST 31ST.
Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Albuquerque, NM. For the past 25 years, Chacon has been a major contributor to the experimental music communities of the Southwest U.S. In 2022, Chacon was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Voiceless Mass, and in 2023 was named as a MacArthur Fellow. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America. He is in the bands KILT with Bob Bellerue and Sandor Finta, White People Killed Them with Marshall Trammell and John Dieterich, the large ensembles Death Convention Singers and Lazyhorse, and has ongoing duo projects with Laura Ortman and Iggor Cavalera. He currently resides in Hudson Valley, NY.
Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese guitarist and improvisational musician known for his avant-garde and experimental approach to music. Tashi’s own skewering of guitar traditions has developed an idiosyncratic take on the instrument, one defined by movement and profound openness to technique.
Alex Zhang Hungtai is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on improvisation and its correlation with the unconscious. After retiring his project Dirty Beaches, Zhang has been focusing on explorations of improvised music, free jazz, and his role as a composer. His newer compositions predominantly work with saxophone and drums, delving into electronic music. Besides his solo work, some past collaborators include: Tashi Dorji, Che Chen, Chris Williams, Sam Shalabi, David Maranha, and Gabriel Ferrandini. Zhang currently works as a composer for film soundtracks, along with acting in independent films. He has appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return alongside Dean Hurley and Riley Lynch under the fictitious band Trouble. His latest film score Godland by Hlynur Pálmason was in competition at Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard. He currently lives in New York City.
Leo Chang is a Korean immigrant experimental musician, improviser, composer, and sound artist based in New York. Informed by his transient lived experience, Leo plays with sounds, instruments, forms, and social practices outside of their original context. Since 2019, he has been focused on building electronic performance setups derived from Korean folk practices and instruments. Leo is a 2026-2028 Princeton Arts Fellow, 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow, 2023-25 Commissioned and Resident Artist at Roulette Intermedium, 2024 Center for Performance Research Artist-in-Residence, and has received grants from the Korea Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Brooklyn Arts Council.
