Normal Sounds, by Lia Kohl

Normal Sounds

by Lia Kohl

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Reverse board jacket, poly-lined inner sleeve

Includes unlimited streaming of Normal Sounds via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.	Tennis Court Light, Snow 04:41	buy track
2.	Car Alarm, Turn Signal (feat. Ka Baird) 04:47	buy track
3.	Plane 06:56	buy track
4.	Ice Cream Truck, Tornado Siren 05:23	buy track
5.	Airport Fridge, Self Checkout 06:33	buy track
6.	Car Horns (feat. Patrick Shiroishi) 04:25	buy track
7.	Ignition, Sneakers 04:49	buy track

about

It’s not difficult to find beauty in the sounds of nature – ocean waves, birdsong, rainfall – but it's easy to overlook the charm and wonder of everyday anthropogenic sounds. Equal parts reverent and playful, Normal Sounds is built around field recordings of human-made, non-musical sounds: fridge drones, grocery store beeps, car horns. Lia Kohl alternately hallows and mimics them, offering them to the listener in a new light. Using a textural cloud of cello and synthesizers, with a few notable contributions from wind players Ka Baird and Patrick Shiroishi, Kohl brings out beauty in the world’s inane noise.

This interest in the mundane is not new to Kohl. Normal Sounds follows a series of pieces – The Ceiling Reposes, Untitled Radio, Variations on a Topography – which use field recordings of AM/FM radio as centerpieces. Her work hones in on unnoticed or under-documented sounds: the things we tend to tune out or hear passively. Many of the field recordings on Normal Sounds are functional, indicating danger (tornado siren, car alarms), fun (ice cream truck) or change (“the seatbelt sign is on”, “please take your receipt”). Others are simply byproducts of machine function: the drone of a fridge or airplane. While they’re sometimes intended to be heard, they’re not intended to be listened to.

For Kohl, her treatment of these sounds acts as a practice of attention, or in her words “a practice of trying to be more alive.” Often this practice takes the form of mimicry: harmonizing the already-present frequencies of a tennis court light with cello harmonics, or cheekily pairing car horns with Shiroishi’s saxophone. Sometimes, she augments the soundscape more dramatically, pulling it in a new direction with melodic cello or arpeggiated synths. It’s occasionally unclear whether a sound comes from her or the world around her. She nestles each field recording into a bed of her own sounds, inviting us to listen to the world through her ears.

credits

released August 30, 2024

All music written, recorded and performed by Lia Kohl, except improvisations by Ka Baird (track 2) and Patrick Shiroishi (track 6).
Normal Sounds was recorded between March 2023 and September 2023 in Chicago, Boston, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles.

Mixed by Dave Vettraino
Mastered by Sean McCann
Artwork by Tine Bek
Design by Steve Rosborough

Lia Kohl: field recordings, synthesizers, cello
Ka Baird: flute, electronics (track 2)
Patrick Shiroishi: saxophone (track 6)

Many thanks to Ka, Patrick, Steve, Dave, Tine, ACRE, and Mama.
N, my whole heart.

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about

Lia Kohl Chicago, Illinois

Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and sound artist based in Chicago.

Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound.

liairenekohl.com

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