The title of Fields, Jason Kahn’s fifth solo full-length for his own Cut imprint, while perhaps not inspired by it, conveniently identifies the disc’s addition to Kahn’s usual arsenal of percussion and synthesizer, a collection of international field recordings. The disc may not represent Kahn’s first work with such pre-recorded media, but it’s hard to tell, as with the majority of Kahn’s percussion, the recordings are melded seamlessly into the music, with little evidence of their origin. Kahn’s music typically explores the characteristics of the space in which it was recorded, encouraging an active (if abstract) integration of physical surroundings into the music. While some simply play in a room, Kahn often plays the room itself. Fields, however, isn’t noted as being performed in any specific space, but, in a sense, the integration of Kahn’s location recordings into the music is an interesting twist on his work with the sound of a particular place.
Fields’ first untitled track opens with what might be a train whistle, modified for seemingly endless sustain. It seems the most obvious of Kahn’s uses of field recording, and one can’t even be sure that it’s not a product of one of Kahn’s synths. Identities are camouflaged on Fields; in addition to the location recordings, Kahn’s percussion doesn’t make its presence known in conventional ways, and while his use of shortwave radio is perhaps a bit more evident in places, Kahn still avoids being too obvious with any of his auxiliary sound sources.
For all the ambiguity in their instrumentation, the tracks that comprise Fields are relatively straightforward. Kahn has a tendency to allow an idea or technique to percolate throughout a track’s duration, and while tracks like the first and sixth do feature shifts in sound, they’re done so subtly that any change is easy to miss. Much of Fields seems especially textural for Kahn; there’s a satisfying grit to many of the tracks, particularly pleasing when it offsets a mechanical whine.
Fields is yet another aurally pleasing entry into the Cut catalog, smartly designed, as always, and aurally on the mark. Kahn’s discography is consistently solid, and though he’s not the flashiest or most brilliantly innovative of his ilk, the Swiss émigré’s releases are always worth checking out, and Fields is no exception.
