A whirlwind, a tour, a sardine pasta

Lia Kohl's August Newsletter

Hi, buddies,

I’m back from a whirlwind of trips, which made this last month feel like three. I love that time can expand and contract so fabulously. I also love being at home for more than one day at a time, so I’m looking forward to this early August respite.

Wow, the sky. Does anyone else think of James and the Giant Peach whenever they fly?

Several trips involved new collaborations — recording and performing with Cole Pulice and Andrew Broder in Minneapolis and with Mari Maurice and Lynn Avery in New York. In upstate New York, I spent a few days at Wave Farm, starting work on a new poetry and music project with Elizabeth Metzger. New collaborations find new rooms in my mind, making the world feel bigger.

I also got to see both of my parents this month, camping in Michigan with my Mama and spending a few days in New York City with my dad. They’re both incredibly interesting and wonderful people, and I’m grateful for their friendship.

I’m continuing to share previews of my new album, which comes out in full on August 30th. Thank you (!) to those of you who have already bought a copy, and if you haven’t yet, please do! You can also, of course, grab a digital version.

Before the show schedule, a quick extra plug for my album release show at Constellation on September 14th. It would mean so much to me to see you there!

a few shows:

8.4 Trio with Sam Wagster and Gerrit Hatcher: Hungry Brain, Chicago

8.9 Deluxe Delight (duo with James Wetzel): 9pm Tritriangle (1550 Milwaukee), Chicago

8.17 Disturbances: new work for 27 radios with Jeff Kolar: 4pm TUSK (3205 W Armitage), Chicago

This will be a special one! We’re using synths and FM transmitters to broadcast to 27 radios installed throughout the TUSK. Photo by Timothy Burkhart.

8.19 Trio with Macie Stewart and Whitney Johnson: Sleeping Village, Chicago

And a tour:

8.24 Albi, France @ Festival Baignade Sauvage

8.30 Antwerpen, Belgium @ Summer Bummer Festival

8.31 Antwerpen, Belgium @ Summer Bummer Festival (with Fire! Orchestra)

9.1 Cologne, Germany @ 674FM

9.3 Dijon, France @ Sabotage

9.4 Paris, France @ Chair de Poule

9.5 Bordeaux, France @ Outrage

9.6 Düsseldorf, Germany @ André

9.7 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Cinetol

9.8 Darmstadt, Germany @ Gute Stube

tiny recommendations:

1. Some George Duke for your afternoon.

2. Elizabeth lent me a copy of The Anthropologists, which I devoured on the plane — she likened it to Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? (another favorite), which feels apt. I’m halfway through The Coin, which is engrossing and strange.

3. Agnes Varda’s The Beaches of Agnes - her last film, and one of the more imaginative film memoirs/self portraits I’ve ever seen. For those of you in Chicago, the Siskel is doing an amazing series called Entrances and Exits, showing the first and last films of 10 different filmmakers as double features (Beaches was in this series, paired with La Pointe Courte, full of cats and laundry). If you’re not in Chicago, stage your own version!

4. This pen, with a very fine point.

5. Texting people from past lives, out of the blue. I’ve had a couple of lovely catch-ups recently, affirming my theory that almost everyone wants to be friends.

6. This lovely, smudgy lipstick.

7. Sicilian sardine pasta (this is the version I could find online, but Marcella adds a tablespoon of tomato paste to the saffron water, which I recommend). We omitted the bread crumbs (boring) and the pine nuts (make my tummy hurt).

8. Continuing to help folks in Gaza reach the outside world by donating esims.

That’s all, for now.

Lia