Please join us to mark the opening of Suspension Blues, a collaborative audio-visual work by John Krausbauer and Kaori Suzuki.

Conceived in 2020 by John Krausbauer and Kaori Suzuki as an immersive, droning strobosphere, Suspension Blues is a model for an activated environment with an amalgam of pulsating light and color, high-frequency drones, and shimmering glissandi.

The aural and visual elements function in direct and intentional relation with one another and by the selfsame perceptual mechanism. A total sensory field saturation instigates retinal and cochlear hyperactivation; long durational attendance is rewarded by trance-induction into deeper folds of space-time. Harmonic drones are utilized as sonic activators and guide the ears in an act of “deep listening” (albeit an act more shock-awakening than meditational), whilst the psychotropic strobing color fields are employed as the nearest optical equivalent to the drone. The two in tandem establish a deeply immersive union.

Of the work, John and Kaori observe:

We share a formulated aesthetic sensibility that prioritizes the potential of experiential sense-perception over topical or ornamental formalism. We are committed to the sensuous experience of the sublime and to psych-altering, and want to make use of a system of values that exalts the pluralistic present-now. SB asks for participation in a ritual dance of the psychosomatic, inviting participants to tune into a charged space of affirmation and the ever-infinite.

Opens: Wednesday 21 June, 5.30pm, with refreshments by Liberty Breweries and Decibel Wines
Hours: 12 – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday
Closes: Friday 7 July

John Krausbauer is an American composer/musician, artist, writer, refusenik.

He has performed his music and presented his audio visual work in North America, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. Additionally he has released almost 30 recordings in solo, duo, and group contexts and will soon have his first writings published by Witchhammer Press (NZ).

Kaori Suzuki is a Tokyo-born sound artist and teacher living in California. Her solo and collaborative recordings are published on various independent imprints in America and Europe.

Her soundings are grounded in heightened sense-practice, third ear tone psychedelia and aural phenomena. When she is not working on her solo works, her other projects include drumming in the San Franciscan minimalist psych-punk group, Night Collectors; her collaborative light & sound happenings with partner John Krausbauer; and playing cello and electric guitar in the ever-intense amplified string ensemble, Ecstatic Music Band.

Image credit: David Maranha