The ESS staff did some digging in the Creative Audio Archive this past month, and everyone pulled out a few items that caught their ear. Enjoy listening below, and come out tonight to listen in person at middle brow as part of our CAA DJ Nights!
Read MoreToday's Dive is a special one as we memorialize the life of Harrison Bankhead, the Chicago musical legend who passed away earlier this year. Bankhead was a friend within the ESS community, and his work is archived across a number of collections in the Creative Audio Archive.
Read MoreAn Archive Dive featuring the works of Liof Munimula, an experimental music trio (Michael Zerang, Don Meckley, and Daniel Scanlan) who performed regularly from 1982 until 1997.
Read MoreSpecial Edition Archive Dive: Staff Picks. To kick off a new era of Archive Dives we're bringing you a few favorites from the ESS staff, including selections featuring Vernon Reid & Laraaji; Isotope 217; Julia Holter & Olivia Block; Jim O'Rourke; Joe McPhee & Tomeka Reid; and AJ McClenon, Amina Ross, & Jared Brown.
Read MoreOn what would have been his 93rd birthday, the Creative Audio Archive is ecstatic to announce the Fred Anderson Collection. Thanks to generous donations by longtime friend and Velvet Lounge associate Andy Pierce; Sharon Friedman, Fred's partner in his first club Birdhouse; and including a forthcoming donation of photographs from Lauren Deutsch - as well as, we hope, future donations from the experimental and jazz music communities of Chicago - the Fred Anderson Collection features rare unheard recordings going back to the 1970s, live performance videos from the '80s until well into the 2000s, hard to find documentaries on Fred, his collaborators, peers, and inspirations, and photographs and ephemera from throughout his extraordinary life in music.
Read MoreAn Archive Dive playlist of things to watch, sifting through some choice - mainly music documentary - viewing from within, or related, to our collections.
This Saturday, December 4th, 2021, our current Archive Artists in Residence Every House Has a Door - led by director Lin Hixson & dramaturg Matthew Goulish - will present 5 Beginnings ESS, a new work made utilizing materials found within the Creative Audio Archive's ESS Collection.
Matthew, Lin, and I exchanged emails this past week to discuss 5 Beginnings: ESS, the culmination of their CAA residency project…
Read MoreOn December 4th, via ESS' The Quarantine Concerts livestream, Every house has a door will present 5 Beginnings ESS - a new work made utilizing materials found within the Creative Audio Archive's ESS Collection. Read on for a feature by Archive and Media Manager Matt Mehlan about the Every house tenure as Archive Artist in Residence, led by performance group director Lin Hixson & dramaturg Matthew Goulish.
Read MoreThis edition of Archive Dive brings you five tapes from the Malachi Ritscher Collection tied together by nothing else (well, no other curatorial premise...) than being housed in the same box (New Box #11) within the collection...
Read MoreAs a part of the ongoing work of The Creative Audio Archive at ESS, we present Archive Dive - a regular newsletter featuring unheard recordings and ephemera related to the collections housed in the CAA. In this issue, leading up to his appearance on the OPTION series March 1, we present a selection of recordings related to musician and record producer Jim O’Rourke.
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