A duo set by longtime multimedia collaborators Mario Diaz de Leon and Jay King. Using video, guitars, voice, zither, and electronics, K/DdL will perform their dense, percussive, and hyper-composed audiovisual style, as well as more recent approaches incorporating improvisation and live video.
Jay King (b. 1978) and Mario Diaz de León (b.1979) began working on music together in 1995; multidisciplinary work in 2000. Their collaborative practice has included video, game environments, participatory experimentation, and multimedia performance. Solo exhibition at Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis. Group exhibitions include Greater New York 2005, PS1/MoMA, New York; Trial Balloons, MUSAC, León, Spain; The Space Between the Spokes, KS Art, New York; musica-video-musica, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Artist residency at Brooklyn Fireproof, New York. Performances at venues including Roulette, The Stone, The Juilliard School, New York; Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio; Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore. Both live and work in New York City.
Mario Diaz de León : Born 1979 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Grew up playing guitar in punk and metal bands. Attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition and music technology. Since 2004, he lives in New York City, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in composition at Columbia University, studying with George Lewis and Fabien Lévy. Since 2002 he has focused on acoustic + electric hybrids in chamber music, expressed as hypnotic walls and gestures of shimmering sound. He helps run the Shinkoyo music label. A multi-instrumentalist on guitar, zither, voice, and electronics, he performs solo, and with the multimedia group Symbol (with Doron Sadja and Zeljko McMullen). He has collaborated with Jay King on multimedia works since 2000. Performed and exhibited work internationally, with ensembles including International Contemporary Ensemble (USA), Hyperion Ensemble (Romania), iO Quartet and Allsar Quartet. His discography includes 3 releases on the Shinkoyo label, as well as an upcoming CD on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.
“a solo performance utilizing live guitar and piano feedback as well as binaural recordings of many spaces collapsed together - presented through ISSUE Project Room’s multi-channel sound system.”
Zeljko McMullen:
Born February 4th, 1980 in Massillon, Ohio - moved to Chicago and then Oberlin, attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Studied orchestral and electronic composition, sound art/installation. Helped form the Shinkoyo art + music collective. Currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Co-curates the Paris London New York West Nile art + music gallery. Studying for MFA Music/Sound at Bard College. Primarily deals with walls of acoustic and electronic sound as architecture and moveable spaces. Active experimenter with both binaural perceptive beating and binaural spatial recordings. Participates regularly in improvised musical and visual art environments. Has exhibited work and/or performed at the Ke Center for Contemporary Art (Shanghai, China), Tarantula Hill (Baltimore, MD) Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh, PA), Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH), Sovereign Gallery (Boulder, CO), the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Detroit, MI), Here-Here Gallery (Cleveland, OH) Placard Headphone Festival (NY, NY), The Black Lodge (Philadelphia, PA), the Empty Bottle (Chicago, IL), Stairwell Gallery (Providence, RI), Music Gallery (Toronto, ON), Marvelli Gallery (NY, NY), The Bridge PAI (Charlottesville, VA), Lemp Arts (St. Louis, MO), Butchershop Gallery (Vancouver, BC), il Corral (Los Angeles, CA), Roulette Intermedium (NY, NY), Norwegian Wood Festival (Oslo, Norway), Hultsfred Festival (Hultsfred, Sweden), Isle of Wight Festival (Isle of Wight, UK), Villa Marina (Isle of Man, UK), The Sage (Gateshead, UK), Primavera Festival (Barcelona,Spain), Palacio de Congresso (Madrid, Spain), The Kitchen Benefit 2006 (NY, NY). Has received commissions from the Jerome Foundation, Neumann/Sennheiser. Has numerous solo and collaborative releases on Shinkoyo records. Has recently collaborated with musicians Lou Reed, Doron Sadja, MV Carbon, Mario Diaz de Leon, Justin Craun, and Brooke Gillespie. Currently working with Tony Conrad, Maryanne Amacher, Nautical Almanac, Severiano Martinez + more on a video project based on the fool’s journey through the tarot (completion fall 2008). Also a surround sound installation in Beijing, China summer 2008.