WHITNEY JOHNSON & LIA KOHL - For Translucence - LP - Vinyl [MAR 28]

LP - Black Vinyl.  

The debut album from Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl has evolved over several years from their initial practice of free improvisation on viola and cello into (for the moment), this: a neophonic orchestral expression. At once stimulating and soothing, For Translucence is a living, breathing meditation in which layers of acoustic strings, synthesizers, field recordings, radio and sine waves illuminate each other as they twine and grow.

Lia and Whitney began playing together in 2018, exploring the space between Lia’s cello and Whitney’s viola, with their shared tuning one octave apart. There was an ease in weaving their instruments and voices, whether playing outside, with extended technique; or inside, playing melodic lines with rich tones.

Several years passed before they considered recording, as the shared parts of their identities – string players, composers, and sound artists based in Chicago; both interested in solo composition as well as improvisation and collaboration – soaked the fertile ground. Then their individual concerns – Lia, exploring the possibilities and dualities of mundane and profound sounds; Whitney (as Matchess and herself) presenting the listener with the effects of sound on bodies and minds – were able to be more finely articulated and integrated in this finished work.

Recording at Experimental Sound Studio, Whitney filled out the low end of her sound with sine waves, making binaural beats through function generators and her ARP Odyssey synthesizer. Lia added an AM/FM radio and her Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer. Using the open strings on both viola and cello to create the drones and establish a baseline of gravity, they improvised, building up phases of spontaneity before giving careful consideration to what they’d assembled, editing it to arrive at a final mix. The resulting sound isn’t electro-acoustic, exactly; more like electronics and acoustics together, with each layer transforming the one next to it. Within the double layers of their four strings and added instruments, a symmetry emerges that is the key to For Translucence.

The role of serendipity and humour in their collaboration is another key to the proceedings. The songs are two improvisations superimposed over each other, the titles derived from the two fundamental frequencies in which they improvise. The binaural beats form a sculptural structure of drone over which further improvisations are made. This is where surprise and laughter come into the focus; like all of time put together, both inside and outside history, their past and future selves unfolding with a flowing energy of fresh discovery breathing through it.

With gently increasing intensity rising throughout the individual songs and the album as a whole, For Translucence emerges as a natural destination spot for people, a place that invites us to witness and relate to its unique organic nature as it blooms.

Tracklist: 

Side A
65|66
48|50

Side B
73|74
54|56