Jason Kahn/Jon Mueller: Papercuts

The 18:06 that comprises Papercuts is a sound construction completed over a one year collaborative period. Their house of music is the manipulation of various papers, both of the handmade and commercial variety.

Kahn, a current resident of Zurich, has worked with Evan parker, Voicecrack, Christian Marclay, Bhob Rainey, Kevin Drumm, and Otomo Yoshihide and in the bands Repeat and Leaving Trains. Jon Mueller, label chief at Crouton Music, has performed with the groups Telecognac, Pele, Collections of Colonies of Bees, and Raccoons. He has also worked with Byard Lancaster, Matt Turner, Achim Wollscheid, and Fred Lonberg-Holm's Lightbox Orchestra.

This very tactile-oriented sound sculpture stacks varying paper manipulation sounds upon each other. Play this disc without reading the instrumentation and you either hear circadas or fire. In fact, Papercuts reminds me of GX Jupitter-Larsen’s band Haters and their noise creations—except where Haters made harsh sounds like smashing glass or roaring fires, Kahn and Mueller stick to more subtle sounds. Their Papercuts enter and exit without resolution. But the meditative quality of these sounds is undeniable.