"Yan Jun was born in 1973 and he grew up in Lanzhou in the province Gansu, where during his teenage years he started writing poetry. He has lived in Beijing since 1999 where he has worked as a music critic, focusing mainly on Chinese underground rock. He founded the record label Sub Jam in 2000, which has since produced a lot of alternative Chinese music. He started making his own music in 2004. Whilst this may be seen as relatively late, his music making can be considered just one of several strings to Yan Jun's bow, along with performance, poetry, writing and curating.

Yan Jun's aesthetic is like a reflection of this borderless, non-hierarchical musical melting pot where everything seems possible. His main sounding materials are field recordings and noise. Esthetically he is interested in sound characteristics such as high frequencies, noise and silence. He plays live, as a soloist or with other musicians and uses lo-tech apparatus, often in improvisation and thus plays a part in the international 'improv' scene. As a composer and musician, he also explores the sonic consequences of body movements, works with video, makes sound installations and writes his own texts for his media works. It comes as no surprise that he has been presented to the Shanghai Biennale, has received a honorarium mention at Prix Ars Electronica and has been invited to the Berlin and Rotterdam international poetry festivals.

With and through different media, Yan Jun is exploring the poetic side of the everyday and of basic materials, exemplified in a few of his works from the last years. Recently, for "Living Room Tour," in Beijing 2014, he visited several private living rooms and from this made a collage of audio and video recordings. The live work "Gestures (Two)" depicts a scene which revolves around a slowly moving and silent figure who is captured in his movements by swarming photographers. In this rather still and quiet performance, the sound of the camera shutters and the flashes give a minimalist commentary on the implication of performing, listening and documentation.

In "Let's act", which was conducted in 2014 in Rotterdam, Yan Jun elegantly links the various cultural activities his oeuvre presents. A text written by Yan Jun about noise and the instrumentalization of noise is juxtaposed with field-recordings and video shots from everyday life. Here noise, rather than being composed, is drawn from a variety of essential parts of life such as communication and social gathering. The work thus artistically displays some of the main features of Yan Jun's music and art. Although he uses a broad range of techniques, he maintains a strong focus and concentration on the everyday and on the importance of the visual as well as an auditive reality."-Andreas Engström

"The Berlin-based clarinetist and composer/performer focuses on a subtle musicality of sound and noise phenomena. As an autodidact he has developed dubious manners on his instrument. His music is rooted in abstractness, including increasingly an insidious expressivity and a pre-melodic quality. He works on the borderline of composition and improvisation, with a preference for long-term collaborations.

His projects are The International Nothing - clarinet duo with Michael Thieke (cd: Mainstream, ftarri 2006 / less action, less excitement, less everything, ftarri 2010 / the dark side of success, ftarri 2014), los glissandinos with klaus filip (cd: Stand clear, creative sources 2005), the magic i.D. - Song Project with margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann & michael thieke (cd/vinyl: Till my breath gives out, erstwhile 2008 / i'm so awake - sleepless i feel, staubgold 2011), duo with Burkhard Stangl (cd: Musik - ein portrait in sehnsucht, erstwhile 2009), the dogmatics with Chris Abrahams (lp: The sacrifice for the music became our lifestyle, monotype 2012), here comes the sun with gunter schneider & barbara romen (cd: Here comes the sun, mikroton 2012), Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone with Christof kurzmann (cd: First time ever i saw your face, quincunx 2006), duo with Bernhard Gal (cd: Going round in serpentines, charhizma 2005), rebecca with michael renkel (cd: Rebecca [two variations], charhizma 2003), No Furniture with Boris Baltschun and Axel Dörner (cd: No furniture, creative sources 2003), and (exceptionally) solo.

Kai has been the commander of Raumschiff Zitrone from 2000 to 2006, joined by christof kurzmann in 2002. Recently both commanders have been retired and closed the legendary raumschiff zitrone which has presented concerts of countless international artists. In 2001 he co-initiated together with gregor hotz and conrad noack berlin's experimental music platform www.Echtzeitmusik.De.

Kai was artist-in-residense at quartier21 (part of museumsquartierwien, vienna) in 2004. As a result of fruitful collaborations and good friendships vienna feels like a second home for him."