ESS 40
Since its inception, ESS has celebrated the overlooked and under heard—the quiet spaces in between and the artful noise of…
CONTINUING RYAN DEFFET’S LEGACY
Ryan Deffet Studio Grant & Engineer Apprenticeship Award Ryan Deffet’s family, in collaboration with members of his music…
Newcity: Sarah Belle Reid Synthesizes Nature and Technology at Lincoln Park Conservatory
Experimental Sound Studio's latest iteration of "Florasonic" presents a quadraphonic installation that reinvigorates the senses during Chicago’s chilling weather.
CAA: Tatsu Aoki & Jeff Parker in conversation
On October 24th, Tatsu Aoki and Jeff Parker got together to discuss their time playing with Fred Anderson in the…
CAA: Listening to Women and the Archive’s Lo-Fi Textures
Throughout summer 2025, Experimental Sound Studio welcomed Chicago-based artist Sarah Lutkenhaus as the Alba Sonic…
CAA: Interview with Tito Rivas, Fonoteca Nacional
As part of an initiative to expand public access to the Creative Audio Archive (CAA), ESS is conducting a…
CAA featured on Montez Press Radio
On July 17, 2025, ESS contributed a playlist of selections from the Creative Audio Archive / Malachi Ritscher Collection featuring…
Newcity Music: The Great Hall: Lia Kohl Makes Music for Union Station
by David Witter For centuries, visual and musical artists have used the sights and sounds of nature—waterfalls, running streams, birds…
Chicago Tribune: Cellist Lia Kohl finds music in the everyday. She’ll soon take a Union Station rush hour by surprise.
by Hannah Edgar While waiting for a train at Union Station recently, Lia Kohl noticed an unexpected sound echoing delicately…
Chicago Reader: Experimental cellist Lia Kohl submerges her sounds in Union Station’s Great Hall
Her ten-player ensemble, which includes Stewart, Good, clarinetist Jason Stein, saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher, trombonists Riley Leitch and Nick Meryhew, tubaist Beth McDonald, bassist Zach Moore, and cellist Dorothy Carlos, will disperse throughout the station’s Great Hall to play a composition that will enable intentional and inadvertent listeners to experience a onetime juxtaposition of planned and incidental sounds.