The Outer Ear Sessions is a pilot program providing free recording studio access to 20+ Chicago-based artists each year for the next two years. Awarded sessions are 6 hours, with an option to add additional hours at a discounted rate. The juried program accepts artists from all genres and career stages who are working to push the boundaries of their practice, leveling the playing field for working Chicago artists city-wide.

Goals

• Increase accessibility to professional recording services, opening up space for artistic experimentation.
• Gather data, insights, and experience to feed further strategies towards building better economic systems and artist-centric approaches to the distribution of performed work.

Timeline

ESS will award 20-25 sessions in 2026, organized across spring and fall application timelines. We are currently in the application period for the Fall Cycle:

Applicants that were not accepted in the first round are invited to reapply in the second round. To resubmit your Spring Cycle application with no changes, please contact olivia@ess.org.

To preview the application, click here.

Please contact info@experimentalsoundstudio.org with any questions regarding the application.