Explore hidden acoustic worlds and immersive soundscapes during a boundary-pushing night of electroacoustic music, featuring concrete experimentalists Kamran Shafii, CAEN (Gordon Ashworth), and BLSPHM (Demian Johnston).
Kamran Shafii (Persian: کامران شفیعی) is an Iranian sound artist working in the field of electroacoustic music. His recent work is characterized by its concern with anthropogenic sound and complex auditory experiences, drawing from his interest in psychoacoustics and acousmatic theory. A primary focus of his practice is the study of acoustic ecologies through measurement devices and piezoelectric accelerometers, asking how infrastructure, distributed systems, and physical matter produce emergent, site-specific sounds with shifting morphologies. Shafii has produced multichannel installations and performed internationally alongside artists including Lea Bertucci, Kevin Drumm, RM Francis, Daniel Menche, and Marcus Schmickler. Many of his programs have been published by Anòmia, Conditional, Superpang, and In Solace Publishing.
CAEN is a music project of Gordon Ashworth (Oscillating Innards, Concern, Knelt Rote) established in Redwood City, California in 2003. The music is built from magnetic tape recordings of vibrating strings, cyclical melodies and field recordings interacting with electronics, loudspeakers and the linear (“real”) time experience. It is meant to sound and feel like a physically impossible but emotionally familiar place. “Middlefield” was released on LP by Urashima in 2014, which collected various CAEN cassette recordings from 2003-2013. In addition to his work under the name CAEN, Gordon Ashworth has released dozens of drone, noise, folk and musique concrete recordings and has performed in over 30 countries, often during extensive and self-organized tours. Ashworth founded the archival record label Olvido in 2015, and he was a co-owner of the Mississippi Records label from 2019 to 2022. He also established the Sun Ra 7” reissue label SPACE KEY in 2024, and the cassette label Iatrogenesis in 2003, with over 70 releases focusing on underground noise and drone artists.
BLSPHM is the mostly-solo project of Seattle-based musician, Demian Johnston (Great Falls, Sutekh Hexen), focusing on mostly-musical soundscapes made from electric guitar, vocals, and loops.