Regarding an air conditioning unit that was running during one of his performances, Jason Kahn is quoted as saying, "Maybe the sound I would liked to have heard above all the others, was the ventilation system -- a combination of humming electricity and the oddly syncopated rhythms of mechanical parts on the verge of breakdown." Though the differences are substantial from work to work, this is a fitting description of Kahn's aesthetic on the (his) Cut label: coaxing the organic out of the electronic. To achieve this on Timelines, he assembled the electroacoustic A-TEAM of Ralph Steinbrüchel, Günter Müller, Norbert Möslang and Christian Weber to realize his graphical score, adding a bit of his own "analogue synthesizer" as well. These men are all well versed in the genre, manipulators of acoustic instruments (Müller and Kahn are both percussionists, Korber still sticks with guitar), never content with the easily obtained sound.
As with most of Kahn's works, Timelines is about texture. Like Debussy's "Nuages", the ensemble maintains a seemingly static gesture formed of microcosmic movement -- recall a summer's night in the country to understand this. Each is held for a decent duration before new material is introduced, creating a pleasantly lethargic and cerebral ride. The group takes care with their choices, opting for frequencies that mix together well, and those that will conceal what's around the corner. Just as your ears acclimate and focus on glitching rhythms, you'll realize that you haven't noticed the whirring sphere that's been brewing for the last few minutes.
There are a few points where continuity is interrupted, a break that sounds startling after 22 minutes of steadiness, yet these bit-reduced sounds, resembling modular plug insertion and decrepit melodies that actively run amok, provide a formal shift into a prolongated tension point of hypnotically deafening tones. Weber's double-bass work adds a strong complement -- particularly the performance that carries "Timelines" in the wake of its climax around the 50-minute mark. His colorful bowing of harmonics, sans effects, sits well alongside barely audible brown noise, an almost-beat, scuttling afterthoughts and a high frequency tone.
Cut's single-track CD trend was probably instituted for preservation of the work, not as a means to frighten off potential fans -- like a sensitive Yeti begging the villagers to be understood. However, this doesn't do much for the hyperactive listener who enjoys getting the gist of things by skipping around. Kahn and his music say "Fuck that guy". This crew would rather pander to themselves and a devoted, intelligent niche audience that takes the time to submit to the worthwhile trek.
>Splendid, Dave Madden, 7.2005

Over the last five years or so, percussionist and electronician Jason Kahn has become one of the most consistently interesting players in electroacoustic improvisation. Not only has he frequently struck an excellent instrumental balance but he has demonstrated (Songs for Nicolas Ross notwithstanding) that he’s got some fascinating ideas with regard to structure as well (consult his recent duos with Günter Müller, Blinks, for an inkling as to how he improvises compositionally, as it were). Timelines represents Kahn’s major compositional endeavor to this point, a graphic score for six improvisers: Kahn himself on analogue synthesizer, Tomas Korber on guitar and electronics, Norbert Möslang (late of Voice Crack) on cracked everyday-electronics, Müller on minidisc, iPod, and electronics, Steinbrüchel on laptop, and Christian Weber on contrabass.
This is Kahn’s Ellington moment. He calls this “social music”, a gathering of players with whom he has longstanding relationships and who are, he avows, the only ones who can play the piece. So what does it sound like? A massive 70-minute sprawl, a roiling river of texture that flows between different points presumably referenced on the score. It opens up with a rich layered drone, but it’s immediately distinct from some of Kahn’s other work by virtue of the supple overtones from Weber’s bass (which conjures up some of the most intense moments from Polwechsel’s initial outings).
It’s generally difficult, however, to pick out individual players here. What’s more often the case is that I got flashes of influence, echoes of musical sympathy. For example, on a couple of occasions I got the distinct impression that I heard some of John Butcher’s electronically treated saxophones in the mix, though there are no reeds present whatsoever. It’s fascinating that so much of Timelines invokes kindred musical spirits—individuals and ensembles—who aren’t even on the recording: abstractions within abstractions, suggestions of suggestions, like a Borges library. But when personalities do emerge, they often do so quite piquantly. Möslang’s granular presence is distinct in every way, and he locks in with Müller and Kahn for some fascinating parallelisms and commentaries, alternate structures even.
Structurally, the piece begins its slow transmutation after the drone is well settled in. Things break roughly at around the 20-minute mark as crackles and clatters—the sounds of systems shutting down—elbow their way into the foreground as low oscillations nestle aside a slowly rising high tone. Just as suddenly, this section is followed by the repetition of high calliope sounds issuing forth from the scrapheap din.
At almost exactly midway through the piece, there is an extraordinary passage where the fulsome drone—having coalesced once more—is slowly picked apart by what are essentially layered tempi: languorous oscillations (I think from Korber), the slow rhythmic crackle of flame, stuttered or mutilated rising and falling tones, and a marvelous sound like the tolling of bells. But ultimately this is a piece that is reticent about revealing its logic, its structure. Always changing, always elusive, this is one of the more compelling releases of the year thus far.
>One Final Note, Jason Bivins, 20.6.2005

Als in den neunziger Jahren Techno-Pioniere das Erbe der Avantgarde für sich reklamierten, war das Taktlos - unterdessen eigenen Traditionen verpflichtet - vorübergehend in eine Krise geraten. Heute aber scheint auch die Techno-Utopie gut in die Gegenwart eingebettet, wo sie von sensiblen Künstlern wie Jason Kahn in einer der Freien Improvisation benachbarten Kultur-Nische bewirtschaftet wird. Für sein Stück "Timeline" hat der in Zürich lebende Amerikaner erfahrene Elektroniker wie Norbert Möslang, Tomas Korber, Günter Müller und Steinbrüchel zusammengebracht, um das Quintett zuletzt um den Kontrabassisten Christian Weber zu erweitern. Zunächst nun war es zwar interessant, wie in dieser Performance bewegungsloser Computerbediener der einzige Instrumentalist anfangs alle Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zog. Doch Webers Spiel fügte sich so nahtlos ein, dass seine Aktionen bald aufgingen in dieser Symphonie des Rauschens, Sirrens, Hallens, Fiepens. Nach einer knappen Stunde klang dieser reich timbrierte Ambient-Raumklang langsam aus in einer sanft abfallenden Kurve - das schönste Diminuendo der Musikgeschichte, vielleicht.
>Ueli Bernays, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 6.2005

The composer’s hand lies less heavily on graphical scores than it does on scores utilising standard notation. Interpretation is required, creative decisions have to be made. Such is the case with Jason Kahn’s Timelines. His sextet consists of Tomas Korber (guitar, electronics), ex-Voice Crack member Norbert Möslang (cracked everyday-electronics), Günter Müller (mini disc, ipod, electronics), Steinbrüchel (laptop), Christian Weber (contrabass) and Kahn himself (analogue synthesizer). His score is comprised of staggered fade-ins, durations and fade-outs strung along a 70-minute timeline; indications as to where the sounds should sit between piano and forte; and a few specific recommendations about sound production. Everything else is left up to the players. This modus operandi suits them well. Steinbrüchel, Kahn and Müller are, in particular, adept at overlapping material that subtly, slowly evolves. But Norbert Möslang’s approach sits uneasily with theirs. His role in the music, from the 20th minute to the 50th, consists of vastly distorted speech or song, like a radio tuned way off-station. This scratchy abrasiveness is, for the most part, refreshing and in strong contrast to Steinbrüchel’s shimmering electronics, Kahn’s sultry feedback whine and Weber’s arco undertow, but occasionally it’s irritating. At such times Müller, Weber, Kahn and Korber ensure the success of the music. The problem is not so much with Möslang’s material but with its prominence in the mix, and, conversely, Weber’s double bass seems slightly undernourished. These are minor flaws. Overall, Timelines works extremely well.
>The Wire, Brian Marley, 6.2005

Este disco es la partitura escrita por parte de Jason Kahn, norteamericano afincado en Zürich, quien toca el sintetizador análogo. Participan el suizo-español Tomas Korber, en guitarra y electrónica [el es uno de los artistas destacados de la vanguardia en Suiza]; el suizo Norbert Möslang en ruidos encontrados en el día a día; el alemán Günter Müller, también otro destacado músico de la música experimental, en mini disc, ipod [grabador digital de gran capacidad de almacenaje y capaz de interactuar con el computador] y electrónica; Ralph Steinbrüchel, destacado artista sonoro que tiene a su cargo el software de audio y Christian Weber, músico que interviene en la composición de música contemporánea, improvisación y jazz moderno, toca el contrabajo. Este es un solo tema estructurado en forma matemática donde el rango dinámico es medio y constante; que por momentos aumente de intensidad a través de la aportación de los ruidos por parte de Möslang, como cargas eléctricas Cada uno de los artistas juega con las dinámicas, desde los tonos puros de Kahn a los drones de guitarra de Korber y el arco del contrabajo de Weber. También se pueden apreciar detalles como el tañir de unas campanas, una trompeta, una voz ultra procesada y ruidos de onda corta. Este es un disco con muchos cambios de voltaje que crean resonancias y la sensación de un espacio altamente electrificado. Es la interacción de sonidos ambientales artificiales y orgánicos con instrumentos digitales y análogos.
>Loop, Guillermo Escudero, 3.2005

Timelines is a composition for six musicians, not unknown for those that are familiar with the label and/or improvised music. Tomas Korber, Norbert Moeslang, Guenter Mueller, Steinbruechel and Christian Weber have been working with Jason Kahn during several occasions and in several formations. Each artist fitts this graphical score perfectly. Each sound is exactly in place. The composition grows slowly, details are added and one notices the perfect interaction. The refined long drawn-out electronic current goes well with the crackles, lovely electronics and minimal guitar- and contrabass strings that all have been put on top of it. This multi-layered soundscape, around seventy minutes ling, has been well-balanced and leaves behind quite an impression.
>Phosphor Magazine, 5.2005

Static twinkle in the sky, how ‘Timelines’ tricks the eye. Well, in that the music is somewhat optical, 3D, popping with vinyl scratches ands threaded with a dense drone. Sounds that could only be adopted from a fantasy craft of some sort, a secret flight of fantasy. ‘Timelines’ is a very architectural sounding piece in which Jason Kahn employs the help of Tomas Korber, Steinbruchel, Christian Weber, Gunter Muller and Norbert Moslang playing everything from contrabass to ipod. Kahn, himself is listed as playing the “graphical score” which is what makes this sound very airtight, almost boldly sea-baring. The pulsing epicenter of the work builds spherically. The ragged edges of torn-up percussion help to make this uneasy listening, all while the mechanics are like a bevy of fountain-like sparks. Scraping and maneuvering through textural space, this becomes its own language of provocative erasure.
>Igloo, TJ Norris, 5.2005

This is it. A big, bubbling cauldron of sound, we’re dealt over seventy minutes all told. Note size of ensemble, it should come as no surprise that singular instrumentation is indiscernible and more importantly immaterial (save some effective contrabass accent, esp. that terrifying arco figure after twenty-seven minutes). The "graphical score" comes from Kahn as performed by the composer, Korber, Möslang, Müller, Steinbrüchel and Weber. Colors are constantly changing. Restraint prevails throughout even in light of the restive whole. Each thematic shift in turn invents an entirely new vocabulary alien to the last. Obviously, many such shifts take shape due to blokes laying out and such, but that’s a reductive answer to a stupid question. This is a massive group effort, a timeline of an insidious virus capable of being parceled out into several albums. There is so much information to process that it’s impossible to give an accurate appraisal after a week of listening. I look forward to growing with this time and again. Do yourself a favor.
>Bagatellen, Michael Schaumann, 4.2005

This "monster band", a cross of computers, electronics, analogue and digital sources plus a contrabass, was conceived by Kahn in order to transform a graphic score into sound. The team is formed by Tomas Korber, Norbert Möslang, Günter Müller, Steinbrüchel and Christian Weber but the single personalities are barely recognizable, as the mass of energies springing out of "Timelines" is a fusion of frequencies that, in some instance, becomes a thing of beauty. The deeply affecting impact of this vibrational force is similar to an underground movement sending measuring apparata in total overload, generating a halogenous aura of sinusoidal meltdowns: human bodies can become radiosensitive if the brain is properly trained. Obviously, this is stuff for connoisseurs and there's no chance for late-hour twaddlers' ignorant theories: "Timelines" has all the riveting characters necessary for a basic moment in new music and its long-haul effect on the psyche speaks for itself, even after minutes from the end of the record.
>Touching Extremes, Massimo Ricci, 3.2005

Timelines liegt dann eine graphische Partitur für sechs Musiker von Jason Kahn selbst zu Grunde. Realisiert wurde sie von den vor allem vom For-4-Ears-Label her bekannten üblichen Verdächtigen Tomas Körber (guitar, electronics), Norbert Möslang (geknackte Alltagselektronik), Günter Müller (mini disc, ipod, electronics), Steinbrüchel (Laptop), Christian Weber (Kontrabass) und Kahn selbst am Analogsynthesizer. Die Sechs folgen in geschlossener Formation einem dröhnminimalistischen Kurs, der als ganzes eintönig, spannungsarm und willensfrei durch Raum und Zeit quillt und sickert. In sich aber bündelt dieser Klangstrom eine Fülle von knisternden Fünkchen, winzigen Zirpklängen, sanft wummerndem Feedbackgedröhn und stechendem Fiepen. Der akustische Äther, als der dieser Klangstrom sich darstellt, wirkt wie ein Kondensat aus elektromagnetischen und Funkwellen, ein anfänglich heller dann dunkler gefärbtes, aus atmosphärischem Rumoren und zivilisatorischem Wellensmog gemischtes Frequenzspektrum, ins Hörbare verschoben. Obwohl die Interpreten alles andere als Nobodies sind im Feld der elektroakustischen Diskretion, verschmelzen sie hier anonym zu einer Einheit, allerdings keiner molaren, sondern einer, die ihr molekulares Innenleben durchschimmern lässt. Kahn betrachtet Timelines ausdrücklich als eine ‚soziale Musik‘, die nur im speziellen Kontext mit diesen speziellen Musikern funktioniert. Für einen durch File-under-popular- & Rock-in-Opposition-Vorstellungen geprägten Kopf ist - ähnlich wie das ‚politische Modell‘ von Improvisation bei Post No Bills - ein solcher Rückschnitt des ‚Sozialen‘ auf die In-Group und auf Klang-Raum-Zeit-Binnenwirkungen Teil des Paradigmenwechsels ins Aporetische und Bescheidene. Es gibt noch Minisender und Medien, aber mit dem Utopieverlust sind die Empfänger, die ‚Ansprechpartner‘, wie in der Müllverbrennungsanlage entsorgt. Alles rauscht und wir rauschen mit. Vielleicht fehlt mir nur die nötige Courage und Konsequenz, meinen Sehnsuchtshorizont an das längst geteilte Es-ist-wie-es-ist anzupassen.
>Bad Alchemy, Rigobert Dittmann, 4.2005

Jason Kahn em “Timelines”. Outros participantes são Muller, Steinbruchel, Thomas Korber, Christian Weber e o próprio Kahn, e mais uma vez é um continuum sonoro preenchido por uma miríade de eventos o que nos é oferecido. Aliás, Jason Kahn persegue neste projecto um modelo de som que vem inspirando a sua música: a reprodução do ruído de um sistema de ventilação, no qual se combinam os murmúrios da electricidade com as pulsações proporcionadas pelo funcionamento das partes mecânicas. O céu, portanto, para alguém como Moslang.
>Rui Eduardo Paes, 5.2005

Als in den neunziger Jahren Techno-Pioniere das Erbe der Avantgarde für sich reklamierten, war das Taktlos - unterdessen eigenen Traditionen verpflichtet - vorübergehend in eine Krise geraten. Heute aber scheint auch die Techno-Utopie gut in die Gegenwart eingebettet, wo sie von sensiblen Künstlern wie Jason Kahn in einer der Freien Improvisation benachbarten Kultur-Nische bewirtschaftet wird. Für sein Stück "Timeline" hat der in Zürich lebende Amerikaner erfahrene Elektroniker wie Norbert Möslang, Tomas Korber, Günter Müller und Steinbrüchel zusammengebracht, um das Quintett zuletzt um den Kontrabassisten Christian Weber zu erweitern. Zunächst nun war es zwar interessant, wie in dieser Performance bewegungsloser Computerbediener der einzige Instrumentalist anfangs alle Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zog. Doch Webers Spiel fügte sich so nahtlos ein, dass seine Aktionen bald aufgingen in dieser Symphonie des Rauschens, Sirrens, Hallens, Fiepens. Nach einer knappen Stunde klang dieser reich timbrierte Ambient-Raumklang langsam aus in einer sanft abfallenden Kurve - das schönste Diminuendo der Musikgeschichte, vielleicht.
>Ueli Bernays, Neu Zürcher Zeitung, 6.2005

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