FYEAR
Collaboration with writer Kaie Kellough
FYEAR bridges improvisation and composition, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, language and abstract vocalization, and combines a strident pulse with an expansive sense of freedom. Its mixed-media compositions invoke the urgency of the troubled moment while leveling a gaze at the future.
Contributors are Jason Sharp (compositions, electronics, bass and baritone saxophones), Kaie Kellough (text, voice), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (voice), Joshua Zubot (violin), Jesse Zubot (violin), Joe Grass (pedal steel), Stefan Schneider (drums), JahSun (drums), and Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (type and visual design). Together, FYEAR draws us into a contemplation of our struggles, our fictions, and our freedom.
Interwoven with the ensemble’s sound are literary texts that draw their language from the various histories that inform the territory on which we live. They question coloniality and reference eco-poetics while nimbly improvising within the strictures of electroacoustic composition. Extended, large-scale typographic works (digital concrete poems) are projected into the ensemble, and converse with the performance. The experience is immersive, maximal, and conjures a world that includes the audience.
Sometimes posing questions and working in the interrogative mode, FYEAR moves through us as we wonder at the future we’ve inherited. It speaks in two tongues that surge to the pulse of two drummers. It is brass, earth, and it is flashing broken typography signaling to – and echoing back from – a brighter horizon.
STAND ABOVE THE STREAMS
with sound artist Adam Basanta
“Conjured via his custom rig incorporating various modes of electronic synthesis, all of which he combines with the snaking rasp of his saxophone, the effect is mesmerizing – resembles Stars Of The Lid pursuing the Sun Ra Arkestra into an electricity substation.” Electronic Sound
“Sharp continues to synthesise his vast array of influences into his distinctive style of electroacoustic music, leading to even more microscopic detail and alien timbres. Stand Above The Streams makes it clear that the home of post-rock is carving out a niche as the home of whatever lies beyond.” The Wire
All sound sources on Stand Above The Streams originate with Sharp, bass and baritone saxophones, heartbeat, pulse, and breathing are played/processed in real time through Sharp’s own signal-bending synthesis rig and through sound artist Adam Basanta’s ‘controlled feedback’ amplification system. Rhythms are generated wholly from Sharp’s similarly controlled breathing and heart rate. The results are utterly gripping, with melodic and micro-tonal elements flowing amidst waves of atmospheric pink and brown noise, low-end modulation and calibrated distortion.
THE DAY THE WILD CRIED
Collaboration with choreographer & dancer Kimberley de Jong
“The Day The Wild Cried” is an intersection of the physical body, a denatured environment and progressive sound technology. This work embodies the danger we face towards climate change by testing the limits of sound, space and body. Microphones are attached on Kimberley’s heart and throat and monitor fluctuations and minor vibrations. The soundscape and physicality is raw, unaffected, literally unveiling the voice inside. The set and sound designs conjure an apocalyptic wasteland full of trash, exposed wires, and flashing lights coming from Jason Sharp’s modulator synthesizer. A trajectory is travelled within a steady 1 hr progression, where a sense of urgency is installed. There is a vulnerability inherent to the work, as every sound and gesture is amplified.
A BOAT UPON ITS BLOOD
with Joe Grass (pedal steel) and Joshua Zubot (violin)
“Technically compelling but also meditative in its freewheeling air. A recurring concept in all of these songs is the rhythms of the body, breath and heart rate as sources of musical material. However irregular the geometry, there is an idiosyncratic perfection here, as only nature is capable of. And yet, the concept here is ancillary; the range of textures and dynamics (and the skill with which they are employed) are more than captivating and cohesive enough to draw listeners in and hold them rapt.”
Exclaim 9/10
A Boat Upon Its Blood is a meditative multi-movement instrumental work that charts an arc of shifting energies and intensities, tracing a heterogeneous cycle of minimalisms and maximalisms. Using custom-built equipment to translate breath and heart rate into variegated sonic triggers, along with other modes of signal processing and in tandem with traditional instrumentation, A Boat Upon Its Blood features Jason Sharp on bass saxophone and amplified heart & breath, Josh Zubot on violin and Joe Grass on pedal steel guitar. – Constellation Records
SOLO
“The performance by saxophonist Jason Sharp continues to resurface in among my day dreams. Taking the theme to heart, Sharp amplified his heartbeat – which seemed to be projected through a massive drum, triggering it to pulse as he raced against it on the saxophone. Placed in front of the massive bass saxophone was a snare drum set on its side. It too would resonate from the vibrations created by the guttural low tones. The performance was remarkable and an excellent choice for closing the outstanding festival.”–Natanielle Felicitas, for Cluster Festival