kwno by jhno

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Ambient | Experimental

7 tracks | 60 minutes

Released Jan 2006
on Delicate Ear

Click for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.

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sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 07:44 drum and java lyrics BUY MP3 07:44 drum and java lyrics "GIFT MP3" 07:44 drum and java

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 07:35 my mind is aglow (verfas mix) lyrics BUY MP3 07:35 my mind is aglow (verfas mix) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 07:35 my mind is aglow (verfas mix)

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 08:01 morph lyrics BUY MP3 08:01 morph lyrics "GIFT MP3" 08:01 morph

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 09:20 jung lyrics BUY MP3 09:20 jung lyrics "GIFT MP3" 09:20 jung

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 07:31 k2kckbk lyrics BUY MP3 07:31 k2kckbk lyrics "GIFT MP3" 07:31 k2kckbk

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 11:15 little yellow car (take me far mix) lyrics BUY MP3 11:15 little yellow car (take me far mix) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 11:15 little yellow car (take me far mix)

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 08:49 untitled lyrics BUY MP3 08:49 untitled lyrics "GIFT MP3" 08:49 untitled

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JHNO's second cd - ambient and drum&bass-influenced collage stories with jazz, gamelan, fender rhodes, and psychedelic influences.

Editorial review

Emerging out of the copious San Francisco electronica scene of the late Nineties, John Eichenseer, whose nom de plume is Jhno, showed himself to be one of the most invigorating voices in West Coast electronica by the time of his second full-length release. Kwno mixes live instrumentation with samples, breakbeats, and heavily treated electronic percussion as a means of investigating the nexus between ambient jazz, dub, drum & bass, and the gamelan music of Java and Bali. The songs are extended, stretched out, each over eight to eleven minutes long, and so organic-sounding with deep dub bass and the spaciousness of the keyboard underpinning that they give the impression they are breathing, sometimes quietly and calmly, sometimes fitfully on the back of your neck. Each song reaches the same ends by different means: "My Mind Is Aglow" melds cool jazz keyboards with drum & bass rhythms into a soothing, Sunday-afternoon brew or late, late-night tonic that manages a propulsive warmth that impossibly recalls both Squarepusher and Steely Dan; "Morph" is so molasses thick it makes your insides feel like glue, and the cut perfectly evokes a nighttime dreamscape full of movement that somehow seems ghostly; "Jung" is trip-hop with viscid Rhodes keyboard and dub-wise bass effects. Each cut is perfectly tuned into that hypnotic time of night/morning when everything turns electrically blue with light and quick-moving shadows. The album is introverted, tribal, downbeat, chilled-out. Still, the music can turn vaguely agitating, as it does on "k2kckbk," which, though evocative of the same time of night, is somewhat disorienting, as if the remains of the night is ringing in your ears. "Untitled" closes the album like slow-motion church bells singing the night to a close and, in general, the whole of Kwno sings with all the emotiveness of heated darkness. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide

Bio / Background

jhno, a.k.a. John Eichenseer, began releasing music in 1995 under his own label, Delicate Ear - including three full-length cd's (understand, KWNO, membrane), and a 12" single (Fly). He is also a member of SPOOL (with John Ridenour) and CRATER (with Scott Amendola, Nels Cline, and others).

Playing piano since age four, jhno has studied jazz, classical, electronic, and ethnic music. All of these come into play in his studio compositions, which stretch to connect drum&bass with gamelan, jazz with ambient, experimental with downtempo. His music has been praised by critics and listeners alike as a unique and mind-bifurcating synergy of technology and organic processes.

jhno is also well-known in the world of music software, primarily for his work with Cycling '74 on Max/MSP, Pluggo, and radiaL - a loop-based music application based on the tool he developed for laptop performance with the bands Wavelord and CRATER.