Lia Kohl

Description

Lia Kohl is an experimental musician, cellist, and collaborator. She creates and performs music and multimedia performance that incorporates sound, video, movement, theater, and sculptural objects. She makes sound with the cello, synthesizers, field recordings, and radios. She plays many kinds of music, from rock to free improvisation to accompaniment for shadow puppet theater. She draws on this wide variety of musical tools to create music that explores the liminal space between the mundane and the profound.

Work Sample

https://shinkoyo.bandcamp.com/album/too-small-to-be-a-plain

Too Small to be a Plain is an album of solo works for cello, synthesizers, field recordings, and radios, released March 4th, 2022 on Shinkoyo/Artist Pool. Written and recorded by Lia Kohl.

https://honestlysame.bandcamp.com/releases

Honestly Same is a group of Chicago-based improvisers Mabel Kwan (Ensemble Dal Niente), Zachary Good (Eighth Blackbird), Sam Scranton (Composer, Volcano), Zach Moore (Mocrep) and myself. "Audio Adults" is a collection of improvisations released on January 24th, 2022. 

https://stevehauschildt.bandcamp.com/album/nonlin

"Reverse Culture Music", the seventh track on Steve Hauschildt's album "Nonlin", is a collaboration between Hauschildt and Kohl, with Hauschildt playing synthesizers and Kohl playing cello. The album was released on Ghostly International in 2019. The track is six minutes and nine seconds.

I have provided samples of both solo and collaborative work, across the spectrum of improvisation and composition.
"Too small to be a plain" is a collection solo work for cello, voice, field recordings, and radio samples; a combination of composed and improvised pieces which can be performed live as a solo act. My first album of solo work, it reflects an established practice as a composer, collaborator, and improviser, while showcasing new sounds specific to my aesthetic and skills.
"Audio Adults" is a fully improvised album made in collaboration with four other Chicago-based improvisers under the name Honestly Same. Honestly Same reflects my practice as collaborative improviser with a variety of groups in Chicago and in cultural exchanges throughout the world.
"Reverse Culture Music", a track from Steve Hauschildt's 2019 album Nonlin, is an example of lending my skills to another musicians project, in this case adding a cello soundscape to Hauschildt's synth improvisation. 

History

Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago. She creates and performs music and multimedia performance that incorporates sound, video, movement, theatre, and sculptural objects. She has presented work and performed at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Walker Art Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and Eckhart Park Pool, and held residencies at Mana Contemporary Chicago, High Concept Labs, dfbrl8r Performance Art Gallery, Mills College and Stanford University.
She is a curator and ensemble member with poly-disciplinary performance ensemble Mocrep. As an improviser and collaborator, she has participated in cultural exchanges in Mexico, France, Germany, Denmark, China and the UK. She has toured on four continents. Frequent collaborators include ZRL (Ryan Packard and Zachary Good), Katinka Kleijn, Macie Stewart, Jasmine Mendoza, and Corey Smith. She has played with Makaya McCraven, Whitney, OHMME, and Circuit des Yeux. She tours regularly with puppet theatre company Manual Cinema and helps create 60 Songs in 60 Minutes, a monthly show with the Neo-Futurists.

Artistic Vision

My work as an improviser, collaborator, and soloist utilizes sound as a medium for exploring both the mundane, the profound and the liminal space between them. Using a combination of traditional instruments and sounds -- cello, voice, synthesizers -- and more experimental ones -- radios, field recordings, kazoos -- I compose soundscapes that are responsive to the world around me.