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Kepla

Biography | Releases | Performances | Other Work | Media

Photo credit: Ben Hughes, 2022

Biography

Jon Davies (b. 1988) is a musician, sound artist, improvisor and performance artist, producing solo works as Kepla since 2014. He has released two solo albums on Chinabot & Alien Jams, three collaborative albums on PTP and Entr'acte, and composed soundtracks for installation pieces and live performances. His collaborators include DeForrest Brown, Jr. (aka Speaker Music), Nathan Jones, Ling, Farhood, Dialect, JC Leisure, Jade Montserrat and Sidsel Meineche Hansen among others. He is also part of improvisation multimedia trio LICK, with Aous Hamoud and Paula Kolar, formed from the radio show Lean In Closer on Melodic Distraction.

He also performs with other musicians as an instrumentalist and arranger. Notable performances include A Crimson Grail by Rhys Chatham as Section Conductor (2012), Infinite Love by Dustin Wong as guitarist and arranger (2011), and performer for Ex-Easter Island Head's performances of Large Electric Ensemble (2017) and Music For Moai Hava (2012). He has also performed for and with artists including Steven Warwick, Beau Beaumont, In Atoms, and Mary Prestidge.

He is an occasional events programmer and workshop facilitator, organising events for artists and audiences to gather around sound, performance and critique. He has organised events for Future Everything, Tate Liverpool, Sounds From The Other City, FACT, The Bluecoat, Liverpool Music Week and Liverpool Independents Biennial.

Other Work

2025: Event organiser for Performance and Sound Explorations, Liverpool, UK
2023: 'Lean In Closer' Radio host w/Aous Hamoud and Paula Kolar, Melodic Distraction
2022: Radio host, Melodic Distraction
2019: Symposium curator for Alien Sound at Tate Liverpool, UK, w/ Marie Thompson, Paul Rekret, Dhanveer Singh Brar, Larne Abse Gogarty, Steve Davismoon, Rachael Rosen, Annalaura Alifuoco, Silvia Battista and Will Scrimshaw.
2018: Soundtrack for 'Revue' by Jade Montserrat at SPILL Festival, Ipswich, UK
2017-2018: Radio host w/ Ling, NTS Manchester
2016: Video soundtrack for 'No Right Way 2 Cum' in solo exhibition SECOND SEX WAR by Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Gasworks, London, UK

Releases

Albums
In Furnace (Cassette, digital) 2023. Chinabot

‘The mournful echo of the [suona], recently banned from rural funeral rites in China, when heard in the repurposed religious space of In Furnace, makes for one of Kepla’s most distinctive and moving releases so far.’ Steph Kretowicz, The Wire #478, 2023

Within The Gaze, A Shadhavar (Poster, digital) 2019. Alien Jams

‘The huge swathes of samples at Kepla’s disposal get used to create vast impressionistic sonic strokes, evoking the loneliness and entropy of modern life, where everything just keeps going, never stops, and is inescapable.’ Tristan Bath, DJ Mag, 2019

The Wages Of Being Black Is Death – with DeForrest Brown, Jr (Cassette, digital) 2018. PTP

‘The Wages of Being Black Is Death gives me visions. Really. It’s intensely optically engaging; an all-in-my-head performance of known knowns and unknown unknowns. Kepla’s collapsing, constantly shifting club music is the ideal companion to Brown’s potent language. Together they make a mess of the “spoken word” record which is perfectly fine by me.’ Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, 2019

The Happy Jug – with Nathan Jones (CD&Book) 2018. Entr’acte

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‘Sound also plays a major role in [The Happy Jug]. Rather than the play being a performance by actors, human or non-human, consciously performing, the sound highlights the flow of energy that vitalises objects. As it pulsates the dialogue become almost inaudible. In doing so it drowns out the meaning of those words as the audience tries to grasp at it. This not only has a jarring effect on the audience but makes us question the role humans play in determining the meaning of things.’ Liam Jones, Syndrome, 2015

Absent Personae – with DeForrest Brown, Jr. (LP, digital) 2017. PTP

‘Absent Personae is the sound of theory becoming noise, and vice versa; we feel the texture of terms of art without registering their meaning and, if we’re listening closely enough, find the satisfaction of adequate knowledge in the midst of distortion.’ Will Neibergall, Tiny Mix Tapes, 2017

Compilations and other recordings
'Dawn Observer What Is Left' by Dialect & Kepla, appears on SINK ONE compilation. Sink Recordings, 2025
'Seaweed Dreams' appears on cassette-only tour release with JC Leisure. House of Saturn, 2023
'The Crown Weaver' appears on Rhythmia Vol I. Euphonic Rhythms, 2020
'Music For Freeports' Pale Master, 2020. Originally produced for Abandon Normal Devices FREEPORT: Terminal MCR exhibition
'Local Habits' by JC Leisure & Kepla. Pale Master, 2020. Originally published by The Wire
'Part Exhumed' appears on The Dane Law compilation. Quantum Natives, 2016
'Ordinant 6', appears on The Bedroom Club Vol III. by No Pain In Pop, 2016
EP. Self-published 2015

Collaborations & Contributions
Piano on 'The Growing Rooms' by Luce Mawdsley. On the album Northwest & Nebulous, Pure O Records, 2024.
Samples on 'Idos de Setembro by Serpente. On the album Cornos, Sucata Tapes, 2023.
Cello and Suona on 'Time Passes Slowly When You're On A Submarine' by Adam Badí Donoval. On the album Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other, The Trilogy Tapes, 2022.
Remix of NV_II by MT Hall. On the EP NV, Pale Master, 2019.
Production with Ling on Tike Tike by Farhood, 2016