JACK LANGDON
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(2019)
Jack Langdon (b. 1994, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) is a musician, filmmaker, and writer with concentrations in experimental music, minimalist documentary, and cultural politics.
Across mediums, Jack’s work stages elusive, complex encounters with commonplace subjects, scenes, and sounds. As a musician, he has created extensive work for pipe organs, and regularly performs on a variety of keyboard instruments as well as the Ojibwe wooden flute (bibigwan). His films focus on landscape, the built environment, memory, and their transmission through people. He writes on the political economy of cultural production and the workplace politics of American independent music making.
Jack has composed works for Yarn/Wire, Schallfeld Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble, Prague Quiet Music Collective, Southland Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Trio SÆITENWIND, Yoshi Weinberg, Jack Yarbrough, Miroslav Beinhauer, Sara Constant, Jonathan Hannau, and Graeme Shields. His work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Fromm Foundation, The Awesome Foundation, MISE-EN_PLACE, and the Prague City Gallery.
As an improviser, he has projects with Jeff Kimmel, Hunter Brown, Olivia Shortt, Taylor Ho Bynum, Adam Shead, Webb Crawford, Anthony Vine, Erica Miller, Sam Scranton, Kelley Sheehan, Ishmael Ali, and Weston Olencki.
His recordings have been released by IMPREC, Sawyer Editions, Dinzu Artefacts, and Lobby Art Records. His written work has been published by Sound American, Cacophony, and Shred Magazine. Jack is a founding editor for Culture as Care Journal with Eli Namay and John Pippen. He runs an independent record label and music journal based in Chicago called Empty Stage.
He is currently studying for his PhD in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University, and holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Saint Olaf College. He is a Graduate Fellow at the Alice Kaplan Center for the Public Humanities in 2024 and 2025.
Jack grew up in Keyeser, Wisconsin.