Touch presents: Achim Mohné + Jiyeon Kim + BJ NIlsen + John Chantler

Event information

Touch presents a triple bill of exploratory music with 3 artists each defining their own sonic territory. German artist Achim Mohné works across different media formats, blurring the edges between them and exploring unexpected uses of modern and outmoded technology. Sohrab is a Tehran based musician whose ambient works are both a product of his environment and a reaction against it. Jiyeon is a Korean sound artist whose experiments in resonance have led to an unconventional approach to field recording.

ACHIM MOHNÉ

Achim Mohné is a German artist who works across different media formats, blurring the edges between them and exploring unexpected uses of modern and outmoded technology. Previous sound works have made a focal point of the actual media format on which they're released with 2012 cassette release 'And It Could Have Been Dead…' (on The Tapeworm) focussing "on audiotape itself: as material, as body, as signifier and as sculpture". Vinyl release 'One To Another' was a specially-designed one-sided vinyl with an empty groove which collected dust as the needle moved across it, changing the sound from total silence to a crackling and thundering music.

SOHRAB

Sohrab was born in Tehran in 1984. He was seven when the Iran-Iraq war ended. His name, from an old poem called 'Shahname', means 'rouge water', which can also mean 'blood'. He started a punk band with his brother and a friend, which lasted about two years before splitting. Sohrab is totally isolated in Iran, with little or no connection to what is happening there. He is currently stateless, applying for political asylum in Germany.

In Iran, 70% of the population is under 30 years old, and this explosive social mix is causing trouble. Sohrab performed one illegal gig which was broken up by the police. He then took to performing alone in a desert or other place of wilderness. Various sound files were sent out before he himself left for Germany in late 2010. These files were assembled to form his first album, A Hidden Place, (Touch) which reflects his inner cultural isolation.

JIYEON KIM

Jiyeon Kim started her career as media art project producer, then she moved to the soundmaker/musician field. She mainly uses field recordings with sounds made with handmade analogue sound devices and acoustic objects as her source. Currently she experiments on resonating different materials in various methods with diy microphones, amplifiers, analogue oscillators, which leads her to develop unconventional ways of field recording.

Jiyeon is also working as a sound educator, actively programming and running various sound workshops for young people. She aims to inspire participants to engage with their sonic environments in an artistic and social way.