JACK LANGDON

is an experimental composer, filmmaker, and writer who was born in 1994 and is a citizen of the sault ste. marie tribe of chippewa indians.

nindaa gichi-neyaashiing

[archive and documentation of past performances can be found here]

UPCOMING EVENTS

12.14.25

Jack Langdon (organ), Ben MacDonald (guitar), Tyler Wagner (bass), Scott Dean Taylor (drums)
Nighthawk
Chicago, IL

2.1.26
Jack Langdon (bibigwan), Kory Reeder (cello), Jeff Kimmel (clarinet), Graham Stephenson (trumpet)
International Museum of Surgical Science
Chicago, IL

2.16.26

Jack Langdon (bibigwan)
Striped Light
Brooklyn, NY

2.21.26

Webb Crawford (tromba marina), Sean Ali (tromba marina), Adam O’Farrill (brass), Jack Langdon (serpent)
Webb Crawford Residency

Issue Project Room
Brooklyn, NY

3.8.26

Jack Langdon (bibigwan), Luke Martin (tone generator), Jeff Kimmel (clarinet), Graham Stephenson (trumpet)
Frequency Series at Constellation
Chicago, IL

TBD

premiere of “Cheap Dream” for harpsichord by Justin Wallace
Britton Recital Hall, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

premiere of “Gravissima” for solo tuba by Jenny Bement
Phoenix, AZ

premiere of “Mystery Spot” by Fonema Consort

BIOGRAPHY, CV, CONTACT

PHOTO BY HANNAH KRUSE

A Family of Things Rendered as Magic Chords
a book of harmony, images, and stories
work in-progress

Created as the first print project of Empty Stage Editions, A Family of Things Rendered as Magic Chords arose from a desire to return to the building blocks of music and to find new paths not taken in the canon of modern tuning systems. The book arose from a questioning in my own work regarding the basis of the harmonic languages I utilize and the imperatives towards “rationality” and “systematicity” in various tuning systems available. Rather than seeking legitimacy in performative pragmatism (keyboard temperments, EDOs) or scientistic schemas (extended just intonation), I radically center my own empirical listening capacity in constructing a series of harmonies based on the unmeasured tuning of tones. Through this method, specious forms of musical universality and theoretical generalizations are avoided. This book acts as a harmonic, pictorial, and narrative companion to my work as a composer—constructing an annex where sound, things in the world, and meaning coalesce.

This work is an attempt towards concieving a system of “non-harmony” through a rejection of various a priori axioms properly understood to be the grounding for most systems of harmony.

Category
Writing