–
// Biography
Kynan Tan / (1988 – )
Composer / Digital Artist
Kynan Tan is an artist who works through digital means to create electroacoustic compositions, installations, audio/visual works and improvised live performances. These works investigate the use of digital technology and manipulation of data in their transference into space through sound and light. The majority of works question the synaesthetic nature of audio and vision, and the capability of direct data transference between these media.
Live performances focus on complex, improvised arrangment of sound; layering vocals, guitar and modular synthesis with live laptop processing using customised software in Max/MSP. This is often contrasted with projected visuals, which act as a backdrop to the sound, through synaesthetic layers of movement, texture and colour.
In December 2009 Kynan toured Japan, playing 11 shows over 19 days, performing with Kouhei Harada, Psychedelic Desert, Laurent Rodz and Chihei Hatakeyama. This tour also saw the self-release of the two clouds EP. Kynan has also played with Lawrence English, Daniel Menche, Robbie Avenaim, Tom Hall, Stina, The Thing, Pillowdiver and Fabio Orsi.
Kynan’s sound installations have been displayed in various galleries and museums, including the large scale Sound Chamber audio/visual dome installation (Scitech, 2010-2011), Threads (free range gallery, 2009) and Floating Spires (Spectrum, 2008). Kynan is also involved in collaborating with film and dance, scoring over 20 works since 2008, including two collaborations with LINK Dance Company, Caused to Happen with New Zealand Dancer/Choreographer Craig Bary in 2009 and Memorial with LINK artistic director Michael Whaites in 2010.
Kynan completed a Bachelor of Music: Music Technology (Honours) in 2010, composing the exegetical work lucidity for electroacoustic ensemble: acoustic instruments, computer processing, sound synthesis and video projections. His dissertation, “The analysis of composition techniques in utp_: synthetic composition for electroacoustic ensembles”, analysed the work utp_ by Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto, discussing the seamless integration of electronic and acoustic means in composition. The course was taught by Cat Hope and Lindsay Vickery, with guest lecturer Anthony Pateras.
Kynan currently lives and works in Perth, Western Australia and Berlin, Germany. He has presented the experimental radio show Difficult Listening on RTR FM, founded Granular Synthesis Composers Collective and is a member of the artist-run free range gallery.
–
// Press
“Kicking off proceedings was Kynan Tan, who has been establishing himself lately not only as a live musician but as an installation artist as well. Tan displayed a masterful understanding of the dynamics of experimental sound, over three pieces that, despite their disparate source material, held together as a cohesive set with a purposeful overall aesthetic. During each piece guitar, voice and analog electronics, and sampled chimes respectively, were delicately pulled apart and stitched back together via glitchy but warm digital processing.” – Adam Trainer, Drum Media, October 2009.
“I saw Kynan Tan for the first time at a showcase of young Perth composers during the TURA Totally Huge New Music Festival. He had written a computer program that converts visual information into sound, through which he ran a video of abstract colours and shapes for the first time at the showcase. It sounded like digital rain, made the brass quartet that played before him look stone-aged by comparison” – Matt Giles, The Wire (West Australian), October 2009.
–
// Selected Achievements
/ Installations
2011 – Sound Chamber – audio/visual dome implementation of the hypnogenia series
2010 – hypnogenia – audio/visual work. Webcam captures movement in space and translates data into images and sound, installed at Scitech during a four-week period in early 2010
2009 – Threads – computer-generated tones projected through eight speakers, installed at free range gallery, Perth, September 2009
2007 – Floating Spires – sound installation for 20 windchimes, 6 speakers and computer sound manipulation, installed at Spectrum Project Space, Perth, June 2007
/ Compositions
2011 – split mirror planes – for four instruments and four audio/visual sources, commissioned by Decibel new music ensemble
2010 – lucidity – major composition for electroacoustic ensemble: acoustic instruments, computer processing, sound synthesis and video projections
2009 – Threads/Hallucinations – live/installed laptop performance for 8-speaker system
2009 – Tides – for piano and laptop with four channel speaker system
2008 – Stretched Limb from Light – for clarinet and laptop
/ Awards
2010 – Decibel Commission – new music composition for the Camera Obscura audio/visual concert in September 2010
2010 – Tura Commissioning Award – presented by Tura New Music, creation and presentation of a new work in 2011
2007 – Best Soundtrack: Revel8 – part of the Revelations International Film Festival
/ Contemporary Dance Collaborations
2010 – Memorial by Michael Whaites – dance soundtrack for LINK dance company
2009 – Caused to Happen by Craig Bary (NZ) – 25 minute dance soundtrack for LINK dance company
2009 – An Empty Room by Emma Fishwick- electronic dance soundtrack
–
// Contact Details:
email: contact@kynantan.com
phone: (+61) 411 378 475 (AUS)
phone: (+49) 176 3903 7571 (GER)
web: www.kynantan.com