Yan White: Sound

Unknown Devices in the Atrium, LCC

“LMC was one of the major forces in the development of improvised music and sonic arts. LMC history is particularly richly textured, not only because it contains important evidence (audible, visual and textual) of early improvised music and sonic arts activity in the UK, but also because it intersects with other initiatives of self-determination, collective politics and critical art practice in the 1970s, such as radical publishing, feminism, structural film, dance, performance art, and sonic ecology, along with organisations like Music for Socialism and the post-punk explosion of independent record companies and promoters.” – David Toop

Unknown Devices: the Laptop Orchestra with David Toop. 10 min film excerpt from 30 min performance at CRISAP, LCC London in May 2009. Performed for the opening of Sound Traces, an exhibition of the London Musicians’ Collective legacy. Filmed and edited by Mika Kioussis

Watch out for me punishing my guitar about halfway through the video!

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I was commissioned to score a 40-minute documentary for Parthenon Films to be aired on National Geographic Channel.

The documentary is titled ‘Living Edens: Yellowstone (America’s Sacred Wilderness) and focuses on a recent experiment to re-introduce wolves back into Yellowstone, restoring the natural equilibrium between the animals.

High in the American Rockies, Yellowstone Park is a place of extraordinary landscapes and geysers. Created by the largest volcanic explosions in the planet’s history, it became the world’s first national park. With the return of wolves, it has become a world-class wildlife sanctuary, the best place to see wolves and grizzly bears chasing elk.

The score uses a mixture of blues and slide guitar, appalachian orchestral arrangement and native american sounds.

View the documentary in full here

Live improvisation at Moving East CI jam

Having developed an interest in dance (contact improvisation and butoh), I was asked to play an improvised set at Moving East. Following the workshop there is a 4-hour period where dancers can explore themes from the workshop and their own ideas, often accompanied by live music.

I recorded the second of these live improvisations. I used an electric guitar with effects and loops, along with various homemade percussions, an SM57, and a metal salad bowl with contact microphone attached.

These are edited tracks from the session. Enjoy, and if you feel compelled to dance around your living room please feel free…..

experimental postrock band featuring:
Yan White (Guitars, composition, mixing)
Matej Setinc (Drums)
Taigen Kawabe (Bass)

Debut album ‘Stem the Tide’ released on Sacred Cow records (2008)

Gigs across London including Fopp records and Badge of Friendship DIY Festival at the ICU, London, 2007.

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