C. Spencer Yeh was born in Taipei, Taiwan 1975, moved to the US in 1980; studied radio/television/film at Northwestern University, and is now based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Yeh is active both as a solo and ensemble artist, as well as with his primary ‘organized sound’ project, Burning Star Core. As an improviser, Yeh has focused on developing a personal vocabulary using violin, voice, and electronics. As a sound organizer/composer, Yeh works with all aspects available surrounding a work, aurally and physically, as elements key to the cumulative experience. He is concerned not only with the sensual aspects of sound, but the gestural qualities as well.
Yeh has performed alongside and collaborated with a deep and ever-growing list of artists and groups including Tony Conrad, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, The New Humans with Vito Acconci, Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano, John Wiese, Lee Ranaldo, JP Feliciano, Rafael Toral, John Edwards, Matthew Bower, Aaron Dilloway, John Olson, Amy Granat, Jutta Koether, LaDonna Smith, Carlos Giffoni, Okkyung Lee,
Greg Kelley, Christine Sehnaoui, Helena Espvall, Peter Jacquemyn, Atsuhiro Ito, Matthew Bower, Audrey Chen, Nate Wooley, Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio All-Stars, Damo Suzuki’s Network, Comets on Fire, The Graveyards, Six Organs of Admittance, Smegma, Carla Bozulich’s Evangelista, and many others, and has performed across the U.S.A. and Europe in a variety of settings and festivals.
Most recently he participated in the 24 Hour Drone People project in Stockholm, alongside artists such as CM Von Hauswolff, Mika Vainio, Joachim Nordwall, BJ Nilsen, Hildur Gudnadottir, and Mark Wastell. Other 2008 plans included a residency at STEIM in Amsterdam NL, the Sound Forest Festival in Riga Latvia, the Open Circuits: Interact Festival in Hasselt, Belgium, the Floating Points festival at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY, a tour as The New Monuments (with Don Dietrich of Borbetomagus and Ben Hall of The Graveyards), an invitation to back Jandek at the Wexner Center in Columbus OH, and a performance with Burning Star Core at the NADA Art Fair in Miami FL. He has also had visual art and video works presented internationally.
Michael Johnsen was born to German immigrants in Pittsburgh, where he continues to live. A tinkerer’s curiosity with commercial electronics led eventually to the design and construction of his own integrated system of devices specifically for live performance whose idiosyncratic behaviors are revealed through their complex interactions . The extensive patching of large numbers of devices produces simple sounds, sudden transients and charming failure modes; embracing the dirt in pure electronics. As an antidote to all that wire, he is equally devoted to the singing saw, a simple folk instrument. Most of what he might have learned has come from the natural world, like watching robins run. He is particularly fond of sounds that end.
He has played widely in the US and Europe in improvising and noise contexts, at major festivals, squats, kindergartens, and museums including the Pittsburgh Biennial, Musique Action 2008, No Adults, Karlsruhe Kunstverien, and three High Zero Festivals in Baltimore . Recent/important partners include Margaret Cox, Jack Wright, trio with Pascal Battus/Thomas Lehn; also Michel Doneda, Michael Zerang, Joe McPhee, Bhob Rainey, Tom Djll, and Greg Pierce. His recordings are distributed by Metamkine.