In his first Chicago performance, Montreal-based artist Jean-François Laporte presents the sound installation Khôra and several new electroacoustic works

Jean-François Laporte (b.1968, Montreal, Canada) is perhaps most widely known for Mantra on Jerome Noetinger’s Metamkine label. This captivating drone work was rumored to use the sounds of a Zamboni machine. Regardless of the source, the piece shows Laporte’s fascination with the hypnotic, transforming and meditative properties of sound—whether from motors, conventional instruments, or his invented instruments, including the Flying Can, the Tu-Yo, the Siren Organ and the Bowl, built out of air compressors, pneumatic valves and boat horns.