Nora Belblidia BmoreArt Bonnie Jones’s Hyphenated Spaces

The hyphen is a connector, but it is also a tensioned line, pulling in opposite directions. 1,500 Red-Crowned Cranes plays with that tension, whether that be in storied objects, prose poems, pink noise, or a paper fold.

Michael Rosenstein, Paris Transatlantic “green just as I could see” 

The four pieces here are highly active improvisations with a rich sonic palette: the static, sputter, and crackles of Jones’ electronics play off Neumann’s hanging string sounds, scraped textures, and jangles. The two avoid conversational interplay, instead looking for organic ways to create a unified voice out of intermingled streams … This is an unmissable encounter between two very distinctive musicians, and Erstwhile’s usual impeccable recording reveals every nuance of it.

Matthew Revert, Trash Complex “green just as I could see” 

..at more than one point while listening to ‘Green Just as I Could See’, I was struck by what I was hearing. As a whole, the recording entrances you – locking you into a very specific place. When these unexpected moments arrive, it completely shifts you, before lulling you again. 

Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise “Arena Ladridos”

“There’s a markedly transparent sound to this trio with silence and ambient sound a distinguishing element to the unfolding improvisations. The character of each of the musicians makes a specific and discrete mark on the music; Rainey’s fricative overtones and sibilant use of breath, Jones’ burred and cracked circuits, and Cogburn’s gesturally abraded percussion. Their music is a tightrope display of careful listening as the three explore a dynamic sense of elastic balance. Over the course of these two sets, the trio evolves a potent collective vocabulary… Each of the members eschews the use of conversational activity, instead, pursuing vectors of countervailing lines that coalesce around velocity and dynamics while creating a mutable tension. The three can drop down to near silence with wisps of detail or erupt in boisterous crescendos, but they emerge in a natural progression rather than any forced sense of formal arc. Rainey is fairly well documented, but Jones, and particularly Cogburn, have not recorded as frequently; this is a particularly welcome release and one I’ve been going back to often.”

Héctor Cabrero, Le Son Du Arisli, “Arena Ladridos”

“A sand rose whose heart beats and breathes.”

Matthew Horne, Tiny Mix Tapes, “Arena Ladridos”

“Arena Ladridos is an aesthetic delight, an album that invites both overwrought analysis… and passive splendor — which I recommend you experience.”

Brian Marley The Wire Magazine, “One Day”

“The sense of engagement between Nakamura and English is at all times palpable, and One Day is an extremely valuable and pleasing addition to their discographies”

Kurt Gottschalk, Squidco, “One Day”

“Floating beds of tone and hum are almost incessantly interrupted by a surprising and unpredictable array of sounds, a fast succession of scratches, static and anonymous blurts. Unlike many recordings in the field, it comes off as distinctly linear, and moves quickly across its timescape. Nakamura’s records are often atmospheric. There’s lots of detail in his work, but they tend to push the listener toward quiet contemplation. If ordinarily he’s hang-gliding, however, here he, Foster and Jones are just trying to keep balance – in a submarine.”

Bill Meyer, Dusted, “One Day”

“The trio manages to make dancing flecks of crackle compelling and briefly sounded retreating tones thrilling in ways that no written description can convey. This music holds no more truck with symbols post-facto than it did while it was made, but simply remains what it is — irreducible and exciting.”

Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, “English”

“… what sets Foster and Jones’ music apart is its splendid sense of structure and timing: sounds that are by themselves harsh, ugly, even physically painful (yep, there’s plenty here to have the family dog barking with sheer delight.. you’d better plug its ears with wax and strap it to the mast, because here comes the Siren Song) are combined into coherent, arresting and ultimately highly enjoyable assemblages…”

Jason Bivins, Dusted, “English”

“I listen to this disc with the sense that it’s some smuggled document, capturing radio waves and hidden exchanges of some sort – muffled, refracted and coded… What unites all these tracks is the duo’s propensity to pursue ideas with the same kind of insistent focus of +minus. But this focus is always balanced by English’s mischievous streak, where rude interruptions and upendings ironically provide context.”

Richard Pinnell, Paris Transatlantic, “English In Concert”

“One of the most exciting groups I’ve heard on disc this year … English’s music is hard to describe; on a basic level they work with similar sounds and instrumentation to many of the other artists on the bill, yet their intensity comes from the shapes and spaces within the music, the frequent gaps of silence and contrasting sounds that play with raw power and nameless emotion in a bright, edgy manner. Great stuff.”

NPR “All Things Considered” Coverage of Sonic Circuits Opening Night

Interview on Human Pyramids Blog by Lexie Mountain

Long Bio: (250 words)
Bonnie Jones is a Korean-American improvising musician, poet, and performer working with electronic sound and text. She performs solo and in numerous collaborative music, film, and visual art projects.

Bonnie’s work explores the fluidity and function of electronic noise (field recordings, circuit bending) and text (poetry, found, spoken, visual). Her art seeks opportunities within different mediums to expose the fluid nature of individual identity, history, form, and meaning.

As an arts organizer, Bonnie was a founding member of the Transmodern Festival and CHELA Gallery and is currently a member of the High Zero Festival collective. In 2010, she co-founded TECHNE https://technesound.org/, an organization that introduces young female-identified women to technology-focused art making, improvisation, and community collaboration. TECHNE’s programs are delivered through partnerships with grassroots organizations that share an aligned commitment to racial and gender equity.

Bonnie received her MFA at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College. She has received commissions from the London ICA and Walters Art Museum and has presented her work extensively at institutions in the US, Mexico, Europe and Asia, including the LA MOCA, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, and REDCAT. Her collaborative sound works have been shown at the Swiss Institute, Whitney Museum, and Hunter College. Bonnie was a 2018 recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

Born in 1977 in South Korea she was raised on a dairy farm in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland. https://bonnie-jones.com/

Short Bio (150 words) 
Bonnie Jones is a Korean-American improvising musician, poet, and performer working with electronic sound and text. She performs solo and in numerous collaborative music, film, and visual art projects. Bonnie was a founding member of the Transmodern Festival and CHELA Gallery and is currently a member of the High Zero Festival collective. In 2010, she co-founded TECHNE https://technesound.org/, an organization that introduces young female-identified women to technology-focused art making, improvisation, and community collaboration. TECHNE’s programs are delivered through partnerships with grassroots organizations that share an aligned commitment to racial and gender equity. She has received commissions from the London ICA and Walters Art Museum and has presented her work extensively at institutions in the US, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Bonnie was a 2018 recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. Born in 1977 in South Korea she was raised on a dairy farm in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland. https://bonnie-jones.com/

Download hi-res image of Bonnie Jones (click on “view full size” in lower right hand corner of the gallery view)