Music for a train station, music for a dear friend, crashing a wedding (?)
Lia Kohl's May Newsletter
Hi buddies,
I’m writing from New Jersey, where I’m spending a few days performing Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein. My hotel room has six (6) nearly identical lamps, and a framed painting of a potted palm. The hotel is hosting four (4) weddings this weekend; I’ve never crashed a wedding but maybe now is my chance.
I’m in composing mode a lot this May, writing two pieces that I’m really excited about. First, a site specific piece for the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station, for ten musicians. This piece was initially inspired by waiting in the station for a train, and being struck by the ethereal beauty of the canned music playing over the sound system in between train announcements. Transformed by the resonance of the space, it sounded like angels, or some kind of delectable Josquin/vaporwave hybrid. Writing the piece, I’m thinking a lot about background music (what and who is it for?), as I continue to be fascinated by the sounds we tune out. I’m taking some of the form and harmonic content of the canned playlist as my compositional starting point, playing with these ideas. It’s exciting to make something for a mixed audience of intentional listeners and train passengers. If you’re in Chicago, come by.
And second, a trio in honor of my late friend Mars Williams, utilizing (part of) his extensive toy instrument collection. The event is part of a celebration of what would have been Mars’ 70th birthday, and a launch of the Mars Williams Archive at ESS, which includes the toy collection and tons of recordings and scores of Mars’. It’s been so wonderful to play with these toys, which Mars collected over many years as a touring musician. His sense of fun and curiosity are so present, and making this piece feels like collaborating with him. I’ll be performing with Katinka Kleijn and Macie Stewart who also knew and loved Mars.
A few shows:
5.3 Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein: Montclair, NJ
5.7 Solo, opening for LEYA: Constellation, Chicago
5.15 Music for Union Station, with Dorothy Carlos, Zachary Good, Gerrit Hatcher, Riley Leitch, Nick Meryhew, Beth McDonald, Zach Moore, Jason Stein, and Macie Stewart: 6pm Union Station Great Hall, Chicago (free!)
5.18 Solo: The Perch @ Fire Museum Presents, Philadelphia PA
5.20 Solo: Roulette, Brooklyn NY
5.24 Mars Williams’ The Devil’s Whistle: Constellation, Chicago
5.25 Toy Story - a new piece in honor of Mars Williams, with Katinka Kleijn and Macie Stewart: May Chapel, Chicago
5.28 Duo with Whitney Johnson: Constellation, Chicago
5.30 Duo with Walt McClements: Comfort Station Chicago
Tiny recommendations:
Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, which is fascinating and uncanny and insufferable and vulnerable. She alphabetized a decade’s worth of journals and edited them down into something like poetry.
Not making assumptions about people or situations. This month I kept having the experience of being unexpectedly floored by someone’s talent, or kindness, or generosity. A series of gently humbling encounters with my own bias and tendency towards small-mindedness or judgement. People can surprise you in wonderful ways, remember that.
My friend Whitney recommended Ecosia, which is an alternative search engine that doesn’t automatically generate an AI overview. Everyone has lots of feelings about AI, but one of mine is that it has a huge negative environmental impact.*
It’s ramp season - those nutty, vaguely smoky alliums that pop up in early spring. We made a wonderful ramp pesto pasta the other night, which I’ll just tell you about because the recipe is (annoyingly) behind a paywall:
Cut 3 oz guanciale or pancetta into little chunks and fry until crispy (10-15 minutes). Separate one bunch of ramps into bulbs (finely chop) and greens (blanch 10 seconds and then finely chop). Fry the bulbs in the guanciale fat. Puree the greens and fried bulbs with 1/3 cup of grated parmesan, 1/3 cup of olive oil, and 1/4 cup of pistachios. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with this kind of pasta and serve with more chopped pistachios and a bright and/or bitter salad.
Nashville, Indiana. Whitney and I spent last weekend playing shows in Bloomington and Indianapolis performing our duo record and stayed near Nashville for two nights. Dang, people in Indiana are so nice!
This thermos, which doesn’t leak.
Looking very closely at Eastern Redbud trees, which are flowering right now in Chicago.
I'll leave you with this series of mildly cryptic signage
That’s all, for now.
Lia