Photo by Matt Samolis
ARKM foam + conversation with Andrew Clinkman
Monday, March 22nd, 2021
7:00pm CT
Streaming on YouTube
FREE, $5 suggested donation (100% goes to the artists performing)
Adam Kohl aka ARKM foam will present his highly original sound making skills on the Option series while also discussing his work with programmer Andrew Clinkman.
About ARKM foam
Adam Kohl, that's me, has been recording and performing solo as ARKM foam for over 20 years out of the Massachusetts area (where does the time go?!). I've played in a lot of bands and improvising units in that time, maybe you've heard of some of them? Peace, Loving; BANG! BROS.; Knight Howls; Ten Gallon Hat; Illusion or Porpoise, ... those are some of the ones with names. A few of those bands travelled around the US and Canada touring for up to months at a time (pretty fun!).
A lot of times it's just my name next to some other people's names and we duo or trio: Vic Rawlings, Mary Staubitz, Mickey O'Hara, FOOM, Andy Allen, Joshua Burkett, other friends too :) Everybody I play with is expecting to improvise, and we do, but even improvisers have their bags of tricks they rely on time after time.
I use tapes in my music, cassettes, played with battery-powered handheld players. I think of the players as acoustic instruments as they have their own built-in-speaker, does that make sense? Obviously they are electric too, but if I'm playing them in front of a microphone it feels acoustic to me. I use contact mics to listen to the cassette players sometimes as a Doctor would when asking you to 'Breathe In Please'. Anyways, improvising with cassettes exemplifies that blurry line between composition and improvisation because you're improvising with compositions. How about that?!
I've made what feels like a lot of recordings, and some of them have turned into tapes and records and CD's and the like; different labels have 'released' them into the world like newly hatched Lepidoptera: Feeding Tube Records, Refulgent Sepulchre, Baked Tapes, Hausu Mountain, No Basement Is Deep Enough (Serbian label, very cool). I’ve run and helped run some labels myself including Canada Goose Tapes and the cooperative label/venue Whitehaus Family Record. Some of my albums can be pretty different from one another; I’ve done a solo banjo album of traditional tunes, solo pop casio keyboard, free jazz with drum machines, blues, and lots of cassette and media manipulation. Let me give you a link to my website: www.arkmfoam.info, and feel free to get in touch!