Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are three of Chicago‘s foremost experimental artists and composers, each with their own diverse solo practice and long list of credits on other people’s records. Last summer, the trio came together to collaborate on a double single, ‘stone | piece’, released via Chicago jazz label International Anthem. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the songs were stunningly beautiful, taking the trio’s mastery of stringed instruments and deep interest in collaboration and improvisation to create patient drones and haunting melodies.
The good news is that those two pieces were just a preview of a full-length album. Titled BODY SOUND, the collection adds another ten pieces, all of which move with the same grace and instinctive understanding of one other that stems at least in part from the distinctive creative process which brought the songs to life. Johnson, Kohl and Stewart first laid down improvised pieces using their voices and cello, viola and violin respectively, before using tape machines to manipulate them in real time, running the original sounds through all manner of loops and effects to build layers and create entirely new compositions.
The double layer of improvisation is where the trio find the magic, and what makes BODY SOUND such an exciting prospect. The sound of three artists forming an ephemeral symbiotic relationship, reaching places it would be impossible to go alone. “Improvisation has a special capacity to facilitate a kind of sonic intimacy,” Kohl describes of the process. “We’re making choices together in the moment. We’re creating time together before thought enters the equation. It’s an incredibly intimate and intuitive space to share, and feels like the heart center of this music and this practice.”
In anticipation of the record, the group have unveiled a new single, ‘dawn | pulse’. It’s every bit as enchanting as ‘stone | piece’, its soaring strings and wordless vocals creating an atmosphere that verges on the devotional. Check it out below:
Photo by Leah Wendzinski, album art by Jovencio de la Paz