David Hahn
David Hahn grew up in Philadelphia where his early music experiences were playing guitar in rock bands and musicals. He later pursued classical music professionally and performed on lute, guitar, and mandolin with such groups as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, Musica Nel Chiostro in Florence, and the City of London Festival. He taught at the New England Conservatory of Music and toured widely with the Boston Renaissance Ensemble featuring vocalist Andrea von Ramm.
David presently focuses on music composition, electric guitar explorations, and sound design. He creates diverse styles of music ranging from the experimental sounds of processed guitars to musique concrete sound collages to more traditional settings featuring instruments and voices. Much of his substantial repertoire has been commissioned and performed by professional ensembles and soloists, including the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cem Duruoz, the MARE Duo, and the Shank-Hagedorn Duo. He also collaborates with artists in film, theater, spoken word, and other media.
Here are David's comments from the liner notes of his forthcoming debut 7" from Fin Records.
APOCALYPSE COW
“Peace is not the absence of war, it is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the preparation for war.”
-Gil Scott-Heron
It’s about the money, that’s what turns them on. Most wars have that in common. The stupidity of America’s foreign policy makes a lot of sense to a few. With more than a trillion dollars taken from everyone in our country to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and [PLACE NAMES OF COUNTRIES HERE], and with close to $700 billion spent annually on our military industrial complex, these few make a killing, laugh in our faces, and ask us to give more. And we do it. “Mooo!” In 2003, logic and facts were trampled with “shock and awe.” Bush II bucked the entire world and ordered an attack on Iraq, a country which had, conveniently and conclusively, been proven defenseless. Someone far away from the “action” laughed and reaped the profits. And the wars go on and on, with the uncounted dead over there, our forgotten soldiers over here, poverty and ignorance and a ravaged earth—So what’s new? “Mooo!”
Following Bush I’s munchies, this sound collage was assembled from audio of 2 speeches
by Bush II and Rumsfeld, along with other sounds—planes, bombs, cows (of course!) and
sex—the lust for war and the pornographic greed and arrogance which continues to
characterize the American Empire.
W O R K F O R P E A C E
CHERNOBYL
“It can’t happen here. It can’t happen here. I’m telling you my dear, that it can’t happen here.”
-Frank Zappa
Earth Day 2011 is almost exactly 25 years since the disaster at Chernobyl shocked the world with yet another wake-up call about the dangers of harvesting nuclear power. Until recently, Chernobyl was considered the worst plant accident in history—but this was before the partial meltdown of reactors at Japan’s Fukushima I Power Plant. Lost in a multi-dimensional labyrinth of dead ends and false openings and paths rigged by the nuclear industry and the gods of corporate power, lost in our great weariness, we—like Sisyphus—continue to roll the same old boulder up the hill only to watch helplessly as it rolls down again, while we look at what it will crush this time.
What does a nuclear meltdown sound like? Here are three over-dubbed guitars played with a glass slide and an electronic bow—an "e-bow"—which allows the strings to vibrate without an initial pluck.
Special thanks to: Martin for his excellent mastering, Jonathan Clarren for the cover art, Victor Ingrassia for the video, Christian and Fin Records for an excellent idea and unbridled support, and my family.
AVAILABLE NOW!
Apocalypse Cow / Chernobl 7" Vinyl
FIN-LE7-005
For more information: http://www.davidhahnonline.com/index.html