The strong Asian/Western cultural links apparent in John Cage’s extended piano compositions from the 1940’s, resonate strongly with Nguyễn Thanh Thủy (đàn tranh/Vietnamese zither) and Kate Ryder (prepared piano/sampler), two female musicians now resident in Sweden and the UK. Originally from Vietnam and Australia, countries which share a troubled and complex history, our practice further develops these links through an intimate exploration of the musical interface between our instruments. Focusing on sharing techniques such as pitch bending, detuning, vibration/pulsing and the preparation of strings with found objects, the result is an extraordinarily complex sound world and visual experience, independent from the individual cultures we allude to. Since 2014 we joined forces with Jakob Riis, the distinguished Danish laptop artist, to form TJK electro acoustic ensemble combining our sound world with mixed media, sampled sounds and multi layering via live electronic processing. The group is preparing for a tour next year which will include improvisations and premieres from composers Kent Olofsson (SE), Roger Redgate (UK), and Roger Illingworth (UK). The uniqueness of the TJK ensemble lies not only in its multicultural identity, but also in its tremendous versatility - the ability to both improvise imaginatively and to perform complex notated contemporary scores with ease.
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