Gentleness, a new album, and three things that made me laugh
Lia Kohl's February Newsletter
Hi buddies,
I’m just returning from a short tour in Richmond, Virginia. It’s warmer there, and apparently quite the oyster town, so I spent my time in between rehearsals and performances going on extremely long walks with my dear friend Z and frequenting a neighborhood oyster bar.
Until then, I’ve had a very Edwardian Lady month: I’m taking french with a wonderful tutor, and practicing my cello, and drinking lots of tea with friends. A friend started a community choir, and every Monday we gather and sing together, just for the joy of it. The winter is cold and the world is particularly hostile, so I’m trying to find and give gentleness where I can.
Some news!
Whitney Johnson and I have a duo record coming out on Drag City Records on March 28th! For Translucence combines our two string instruments (cello + viola), synthesizers, radio, field recordings, and sine tone drones into a quartet of longform pieces that are both dynamic and meditative. Making music and touring and talking with Whitney is such a joy, and I’m glad to have this record (pun intended, yes) of our years-long collaboration.
Here’s an excerpt/first single, with a video we made together:
A few shows:
2.5 Duo with Whitney Johnson: SPACE, Evanston
2.10 Duo with Mikel Patrick Avery: Instigation Festival: New Orleans, LA
2.12 Quartet with Katinka Kleijn, Anton Hatwich, James Singleton: Instigation Festival: New Orleans, LA
2.13 Rob Mazurek’s Instigation Scores for Multiple Instruments: Instigation Festival, New Orleans, LA
West Coast Tour
2.18 Solo: 2220 Arts and Archives: Los Angeles, CA
2.19 Solo: Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA
2.20 Solo: The Lab, San Francisco, CA
2.21 Artist Talk: CNMAT @ UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2.21 Solo: CNMAT @ UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2.28 Solo - Sonic Celluloid: Elastic Arts, presented by WNUR, Chicago
Tiny recommendations:
I’ve been spending lots of time with a few short experimental films (in preparation for the abovementioned show on February 28). I won’t share them all here - you’ll have to come to the show - but I’ve been particularly captivated by this piece of editorial magic, by Marjorie Keller. And Orthodox friends might especially enjoy seeing footage from a 1950s (?) Theophany vigil at around 2:43 in this amazing film.
This piece, aggregating mundane moments from YouTube, and this one, shazamming 24/7 (which I found via this fascinating newsletter).
My mama got me some cashmere socks for Christmas, which feels like the ultimate luxury.
I used to always order goma-ae at Japanese restaurants as a kid, but haven’t seen it on a menu in years. I was so happy to find this recipe!
In Richmond, Virginia: Beaucoup (neighborhood spot with $1 oyster happy hour), Mekong (best pho I’ve ever had).
I’m on the hunt for the best muffin recipe, do you have one? I have been making pretty good blueberry lemon ones, but I want to level up. lmk.
Bonus (I love the word bonus):
That’s all, for now,
Lia