Kuroshio by Kuroshio | Jason Finkelman, Shu-Cheng Allen Wu, Joy Yang

Kuroshio is the continuous flow of creative spirit expressed by an ever-evolving ensemble of improvising artists of Asian descent who explore and contemplate notions of identity, culture and diasporic histories through multilayered channels of sound and performance.

This eponymous debut documents an incredibly distinct intersectional moment among three electro-acoustic musicians drawing from a rich current of avant-garde artistic practice. Featured here are Shu-Cheng Allen Wu unraveling sonic samples through his masterful LinnStrument control, pianist Joy Yang who doubles on theremin, and Jason Finkelman on acoustic percussion and laptop electronics.

While these sound works are offered here alone, their manifestation was inspired by another flow, projected chemical reactions by Michael Koerner artistically framed in customized ceramic plates imbued with relics of material culture. This exchange offered portals through which our collective meditations were channeled.

Three of these works - bereavement, kimono and red cross badge - specifically consider the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Buried in the mix of bereavement is a story by Asami Endo of meeting a hibakusha who stated, “I can share my memories, but you will never truly comprehend what happened to those of us who lived through the experience.”

The two undisclosed reaction tracks were created along with Koerner’s chemical play, while the current flow tracks represent one continuous improvisation of the trio alone. All works represent sonic imagination unfolding in real time - the continual flow of Kuroshio.

Jason Finkelman
Urbana, Illinois
September 2020

Outside a just finished dance performance, Finkelman approached me with his usual electrified cool, telling me about the pieces his group had been composing in conjunction with chemist-artist Michael Koerner, who excavated the voices of bombed relics from World War II: a medal, a kimono button, a badge. Koerner introduced a chemical flow to the objects, producing changing colors and bubbling, flowing movements that worked as both a score and musical player in the performance of these compositions. Finkelman told me how his own family’s history of being incarcerated in internment camps in the 1940s influenced these sessions. The combination of experimentation, expert improvisation, and racialized histories performed with three highly skilled musicians, set my imagination alight and provide the premises of the project you now hold in your hands.

In the listening, we hear the intricate improvisations as a tide that ties us to multiple histories of Asia and America. Our pasts are present and are transmuted into music that gives global histories of race and violence, death and incarceration protean shapes and fashions a deep understanding of pain and resilience, of spirituality and compassion. On “The Current Flow” parts 1 and 2, we understand the interrelation of past and present through opening themes established by Joy Yang. In part 1, through her use of delay and intense vibrato on the theremin, the “now” can be heard to slip away into the past and back; and, in part 2, the juxtaposition of Yang’s classical piano style with electronic buzzing, the sharp punctures and tapping of Shu-Cheng Allen Wu’s LinnStrument, and Jason Finkelman’s glorious and vast world making. This ensemble reaches a peak in collapsing time and space, creating alternative ways of knowing ourselves and our histories of global movement, family trauma, and creation.

Conjuring momentarily tangible worlds out of the great expanse in a way that reveals possibilities we never considered, these performances awaken us from the lockstep of believing our pasts are finished and our futures already formed.

Fiona Ngô
Champaign, Illinois
September 2020

Jason Finkelman creates a distinct ambient, avant-world sound combining laptop electronics and acoustic instruments, including musical bows and handcrafted percussion. Dedicated to a practice of improvisation, Jason performs with genre-blurring artists across the spectrum and collaborates extensively with choreographer Cynthia Oliver. He is a university arts presenter and radio host in Urbana, IL.

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