Kronos Quartet

836M is pleased to announce its second Creative Lab in partnership with the Kronos Performing Arts Association. On Wednesday, September 3 at 6:30 p.m., the Kronos Quartet will share the stage with experimental sound artist and performer Victoria Shen, inviting audiences to witness their creative process up close, as they rehearse for their upcoming concert presented by Cal Performances.

Shen’s sound practice is concerned with the spatiality and physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Eschewing conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme textures and gestural tones, Shen uses what she calls “chaotic sound” to oppose signal and information, eluding traditionally embedded meaning. Shen’s multimedia practice extends beyond musical composition and performance to include installation and non-traditional methods of distribution. Her DIY approach to deconstructing the concepts of materiality, value and mass production re-contextualizes the formats of the readymade and assemblage techniques. For example, the album art for her debut LP, Hair Birth, utilizes copper to transform the cover into a loudspeaker through which the record can be played. In 2021, Shen produced a series of cut-up records in cast resin embedded with found materials, functioning not only as playable music media but as unique art objects.

For recent performances, she pioneered the use of “Needle Nails,” acrylic nails with embedded turntable styluses, which allow her to play up to five tracks of a record at once. Shen has performed solo concerts across North America, Japan, China, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and the United Kingdom. She has also toured as a member of a turntable trio with Mariam Rezaei and Maria Chavez, and as a member of the hip hop group 1 Above Minus Underground. Shen currently works at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

For Shen’s Creative Lab with the Kronos Quartet, the artists will rehearse a newly commissioned work, currently untitled, for premiere at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on October 11. Tickets are now on sale here.