Kengchakaj - Lak Lan Yon Yæng
7:30 – 10:30PM
Two sets at 7.30 pm and 9.30 pm
Kengchakaj - piano/synth/electronics
Caroline Davis - saxophone
Alfredo Colón - saxophone
Harish Raghavan - bass
Kobi Abcede - drums
Melissa Almaguer - tap
Nitcha Fame Tothong - visual projection
For the performance at The Jazz Gallery, Kengchakaj will revisit and reinterpret pieces from his debut album, “Lak Lan,” while also continuing to explore and experiment with music from his new project, “Yon Yæng.” Lan Lan Yon Yæng, roughly means paradox in Thai, will feature a blend of musical compositions and emotional expressions that may convey contrasting themes. Kengchakaj’s practice involves organizing, synthesizing, and improvising sounds drawn from personal experience influenced by political complexity, ancestral soundscapes, and modes of collaboration rooted in Southeast Asian lineage. His medium of expression spans acoustic piano, electronics, Southeast Asian retune analog synthesizer, multichannel spatial audio, and live coding—a practice of writing and executing code in real-time—utilizing technologies to produce a multisensory live performance.
Kengchakaj is a Manhattan School of Music(MM) graduate, a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and a Gold Award Lumen Prize winner. Kengchakaj is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Lincoln Center Collider Fellow and a Y11 NEW INC member. His projects have received development funds and support from the Lincoln Center, NEW INC, Queens Council on the Arts, City Artist Corps, Rhizome, Processing Foundation, CultureHub, Babycastles, Eyebeam, and Institute for Electronic Arts.