JASON KAHN

"Sihl" was recorded live in studio using percussion and analogue synthesizer. This collection of recordings is named after the Sihl, a river running through Zürich, where I live. At the time I started working on these pieces, I had a studio at a place where the Sihl and the Limmat (the other river which runs through Zürich) ran briefly parallel to each other before converging further on. Whereas the Limmat runs deep and fast and appears rather pure in its composition, the Sihl plunders along slowly, is comparatively shallow and interspersed with a good number of rocks jutting through its surface, small whirlpools and random clumps of tall grass. I appreciate the Sihl's slow pace and muddy constitution. At some points during the summer the Sihl even seems on the verge of drying up! The Limmat just roars on, clear and dark and green and cool. Each day on my way to the studio I walked over a bridge crossing the Sihl. I often stopped for several minutes and observed the Sihl's condition. Over time I began to feel an affinity with what I was trying to do with sound and the presence of the Sihl. The river became the strongest impression I took with me each day as I went in the studio to work, and for this reason this new collection of recordings takes its name from the Sihl.