Lia Kohl, Site Specific

Live at (and for) Chicago's Union Station

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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The Union Station on Lia Kohl’s album Music for Union Station, released earlier this month, is the one in Chicago, Illinois. The “for” in its title means that the music was designed to make use of the place’s richly reverberant qualities, as well as to enter into a conversation with the sounds inherent in that space. The single piece, three quarters of an hour in length, features 10 acoustic instruments, among them Kohl’s cello. Also in the mix: Dorothy Carlos, a second cello; Zachary Good and Jason Stein, bass clarinets; Gerrit Hatcher, tenor saxophone; Riley Leitch and Nick Meryhew, trombones; Beth McDonald, tuba; Zach Moore, bass; and Macie Stewart, violin. Also also in the mix: those site-specific noises, notably the voices of passing travelers (and at least once persistent cough). There is an oceanic drone to Music for Union Station that, along with a nostalgic tinge to the strings, brings to mind the music of Gavin Bryars, and occasionally there’s a quiet pulse that suggesting the minimalism of Philip Glass and Terry Riley. In combination, it’s all pure Kohl: considered, reflective, and deeply resonant.

On Repeat: Earth, Samplr, Duet

Home/office playlist

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

On Sundays I try to at least quickly note some of my favorite listening from the week prior — things I would later regret having not written about in more depth, so better to share here briefly than not at all.

▰ The EP Extra Capsular Extraction was the first recorded music from Earth, the trenchant doom/drone/sludge metal band led by Dylan Carlson. It dates back to 1991. Geometry of Murder: Extra Capsular Extraction Inversions is a reworking of that source material by Black Noi$e (aka Robert Mansel), who’s worked largely in hip-hop with the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and Armand Hammer, among others. If you’re looking for an artistic green shoot at the start of 2026, a hint of the universe bending toward fruitful cross-cultural collaborations, this is such a thing. Just one track, “Divine and Bright (Black Noi$e Inversion),” is on Bandcamp, but the whole thing’s on streaming services. It has a heavy Bill Laswell vibe, which I mean as a high compliment.

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▰ One of Andrew Tasselmyer’s late-Jamuary tracks was a video of him performing just with a single app, the iPad classic called Samplr. Fantastic exploration of sonic stasis, the source samples being piano and strings.

▰ This video apparently goes back four years, but it’s new to me: a fine duet between great Norwegian musicians John Derek Bishop (synthesizer) and Eivind Aarset (guitar, heavy on the eBow).

Disquiet Junto Project 0734: Meet Cue

The Assignment: Write music for a scene from a favorite film

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.

Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the llllllll.co discussion thread.

Disquiet Junto Project 0734: Meet Cue
The Assignment: Write music for a scene from a favorite film.

There is just one step: Write music for a scene from a favorite film. (Note: You don’t need to adhere to the style of the film’s original score.)

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0734” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0734-meet-cue/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How long is the scene?

Deadline: Monday, January 26, 2026, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

About: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).

Please Include When Posting Your Track:

More on the 734th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Meet Cue — The Assignment: Write music for a scene from a favorite film — at https://disquiet.com/0734/

Dexba’s Granulated Gestures

Live from Vietnam

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Jamuary is the gift that keeps on regifting — that’s a poor joke in an attempt at commenting on sampling and resampling, and delays and and the like, all of which are part and parcel in the synth realm of this ongoing month-long engagement in making new music every single day (or doing our best). Vietnam-based Dexba posted this solo piece, a video in which simple keyboard gestures are reworked live through granular synthesis, little wisps of notes left to hover, tonalities held in place, all while a slow rhythmic pattern emerges.

Going Deep with Cleared

A deep, extended sense of transit

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Cleared is the duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera. Their forthcoming album, Lustres, due out March 6, gets a teaser in the form of the title track. Just over 10 minutes in length, it’s an invitingly barren industrial drone that has the density and depth of felt space. Listening is immersive — less a plunge than a deep, extended sense of transit. Vallera arranged and mixed the material, and the album was mastered by Lawrence English (of the Room40 label). Hess and Vallera are based in Chicago, Illinois.

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