Fake trees, recordings of whistles, a new album

Lia Kohl's June Newsletter

Hi buddies,

Hello from the Nashville airport, where I’m waiting for my flight to Charleston in a large sunny seating area surrounded by huge plastic trees. I understand that real trees would be prohibitively messy (I guess?) but it’s still an odd choice. Why not just put up big sculptures? Are these plastic trees technically sculptures? Am I supposed to be calmed by the sight of trees and not think about it so much?

I have lots of thoughts about how we could improve airports (swimming pools, bowling alleys, laser tag, saunas, actual grocery stores) but I do love when they commission big art pieces — this Ruth Azawa in SFO is a favorite.

Speaking of transit-y spaces, this past month was dominated by Music for Union Station, my large scale piece for the great hall of Chicago’s main train station.

A few of the incredible photos taken by Ricardo Adame.

I’m still a bit at a loss for words to describe this experience, except to say that it was one I’ll remember my whole life; a profound experience of listening, of making in response to a space, of embracing the unexpected. I’m so grateful for the musicians who worked on the project with me, and the organizations and people who said yes to helping support it. If you missed it, here’s the preview of the performance in the Chicago Tribune. I hope to do something fun with the recording, and to do more of these projects in the future.

professional tidbits:

The album cover is two photos by Zander (right) and me (left) — we often text each other photos of things we think are beautiful/strange/pleasing, and thought these two had a nice resonance.

My dear friend Zander Raymond and I are releasing a duo album — In Transit— in June, which you can pre-order and listen to a preview of:

The album, which we made remotely, is built around field recordings of liminal spaces: train stations, taxis, etc. (are we sensing a theme here?). It’s being released on vinyl by Tours based label unjenesaisquois. We’ll celebrate the release at Judson and Moore in Chicago on June 27th.

ALSO: I’m working on a solo project with field recordings of whistling! I know there are probably a lot of people who read this newsletter who take field recordings — if you’re one of them, and you have field recordings of whistling that you’re willing to share with me, would you do that through this form? Thank you! and thank you to those of you who have already generously shared your recordings with me.

a few shows:

6.4-6.8 Manual Cinema’s The Fourth Witch: Spoleto Festival, Charleston

European Tour with Whitney Johnson - all shows sharing a bill and playing with Macie Stewart

6.11 Duo with Whitney Johnson: Banlieues Bleues, Paris

6.12 Duo with Whitney Johnson: Anciennes Belgiques, Brussels

6.14 Duo with Whitney Johnson: private concert, Antwerp

6.15 Duo with Whitney Johnson: POM, Eindhoven

6.18 Duo with Whitney Johnson: occii, Amsterdam

6.19 Duo with Whitney Johnson: Trix, Antwerp

6.26 Duo with Nick Meryhew: Comfort Station Logan Square, Chicago

6.27 Duo with Zander Raymond (album release show!): Judson and Moore, Chicago

tiny recommendations:

1. I found the Paul Pfeiffer show at the MCA to be incredibly moving and funny.

2. Among a series of mediocre books this month (send me your recs!), I did enjoy Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter. It has all the rich complexity of the Neapolitan novels in a shorter and punchier form.

3. Madeleine Aguilar and Jordan Knecht’s (un)learning Center at the Comfort Station is playful and lovely and inventive.

4. Alison Roman’s blueberry muffins, which I made several times this month. They’re crunchy on top and have the correct amount of blueberries (many).

5. In New York: The River Deli, which used to be my neighborhood spot in Brooklyn Heights; still so good and so charming. And Christine Sun Kim’s show at the Whitney is wonderful.

6. Someone in my neighborhood did a Gofundme to plant flowers under the El tracks on Sacramento. A bunch of people donated and walking by the other day I was happy to see little flower beds! I’m recommending the gofundme but also doing something lovely for your neighborhood.

That’s all, for now.

Lia