This year the Pacific Exchange will feature experimental and traditional artists from Chile, Peru and Korea. Each artist will present works that have deep connection with their sense of place along the Pacific Ocean. Thingamajigs created this event to emphasize the commonalities of artists living on the Pacific Rim, as well as to showcase their diversity. We ask artists, “what does the Pacific Rim mean to you and how does it affect your music”.
Gregorio Fontén (Chile)
Composer, singing poet from Chile. Currently lives in London. Known as a Dark Satie because of his combination of microtonal tuning, ragtime hints and use of silence, his work has been described as one of ramshackle and unique songs, whose effect is hallucinatory, corrosive; both strange and beautiful.
Combining psychedelic soundscapes, south american huayno and cumbia rhythms with a distinctive personality, his music is as much part of a local tradition as his own original creation. The press has labeled him as the godson of Chile’s 70s legendary band Los Jaivas. As part of the poets workshop “Foro de Escritores”, he has been an active exponent of experimental poetry in Chile; with works published in Chile, Mexico and UK. He performs as a sound poet/solo musician and has had electronic surround compositions and chamber woks performed.
Pauchi Sasaki (Peru)
Peruvian-Japanese Pauchi Sasaki is a performer-composer-improviser. She weaves styles and disciplines in her creative process through interdisciplinary projects that induce the interaction between artwork, space and audience. Her compositions are both for ensembles and electronics. She actively collaborates in projects involving dance, film, theater, sound installation and multimedia performances. She has been invited to festivals in Peru, USA, Japan, Spain, Chile and Switzerland, and received two awards for “Best Original Music” from the National Film Council of Peru and the International Film Festival of Lima. She studied classical, Andean, Hindu and Klezmer violin and she is a current student at Mills College (MFA Electronic Music program). [www.pauchi.com]
Yun-Kyong Jin (South Korea)
Yun-Kyong Jin is a celebrated piri (double reed)player and gugak (Korean traditional music) scholar. She holds degrees from Korea National University of Arts and Seoul National University, and is a doctoral candidate at The Academy of Korean Studies. She has won numerous awards for gugak performance, including The Important Intangible Cultural Asset for classical piri, and has recorded two albums; ‘Memento Mori,’ and, ‘Invisible Land.’