Tashi Dorji & Alex Zhang Hungtai

Thursday, January 26th, 8pm ET, ISSUE opens its 2023 season with an expansive gathering of improvising musicians with idiomatic approaches traversing guitar, percussion, voice, violin, trumpet, electronics, and more. Featuring an intersecting cohort across experimental improvisation, the evening welcomes back Bhutanese guitarist and improviser Tashi Dorji collaborating with multiinstrumentalist Alex Zhang Hungtai.

Tashi Dorji’s own skewering of guitar traditions has developed an idiosyncratic take on the instrument, one defined by movement and profound openness to technique. Although much has been said about his parallelisms with the stark improvisational world of Derek Bailey and meditative energy of Ben Chasny, Dorji has reached the point where his hybrid style has evolved into a new form altogether. Dorji returns after performances alongside Bill Orcutt and Joe McPhee at ISSUE in 2018. Recently, Dorji has collaborated alongside Alex Zhang Hungtai at events at Tubby’s in Kingston, New York and the Catalytic Sound Festival in Asheville, North Carolina. Zhang, having retired his project Dirty Beaches (which focused on a highly stylized approach to the yearning croons of rockabilly), has focused on an improvisational language that combines saxophone, synthesizers, percussion, piano, contact mic feedback drone, cymbal saw, and more.

Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese guitarist and improviser based in Asheville NC. Tashi has released music both as a soloist and as a collaborator, notably with Mette Rasmussen, Aaron Turner (Sumac, Mamiffer), Che Chen (75 Dollar Bill), Aki Onda, Michael Zerang, John Deiterich (Deerhoof), C Spencer Yeh, Dave Rempis, Patrick Shiroishi, KUZU ( w/ Dave Rempis & Tyler Damon), MANAS (w/ Thom Nguyen), Patrick Shiroishi, Dylan Fujioka on labels like Moone Records, Gilgonko Records, Bathetic Records, Trost, Feeding Tubes, UNROCK, VDSQ, MIE, Aerophonic Records, Family Vineyard, Astral Spirits. Tashi is currently on Drag City records.

After retiring his project Dirty Beaches, Alex Zhang Hungtai has been focusing on explorations of improvised music, Free Jazz, film scores and compositions. Zhang predominantly works with saxophone, synthesizers, percussion and piano, furthering his research on ritualistic music of liminality and its correlation with the unconscious mind.