A Song For Friday: Lia Kohl & Zander Raymond

In Transit is a wondrous album of field recordings and electronics. Also stellar new releases from Hotline TNT, University, S.G. Goodman, Alice TM, Yaya Bey, Alberto Continentino, and Amy Cimini.

Mea culpa. Somewhere along the way, I lost track of Normal Sounds, Lia Kohl’s awesome 2024 collection of pieces created from cello, found sounds, and electronics. To get an idea of what she’s up to, consider that one song is called Airport Fridge, Self Checkout, revealing her as a chronicler of the 21st-century audio environment. I really should have included Normal Sounds on either my Classical or Electronic lists from last year, but despite subscribing to her wonderful newsletter, it got subsumed by the tidal wave of music.

I am fixing that today, by turning your attention to In Transit, Kohl’s sparkling new collaborative release with Zander Raymond, a multi-disciplinary artist who makes music with accordion and modular synths. Starting with Kohl’s portfolio of field recordings from bus stops, train stations, taxis, and other places devoted to getting us from here to there, she and Raymond have built up eight tracks that limn these liminal spaces with beauty and optimism.

The third track, It’s lily season, is a perfect example, with a fog of room noise - a train or subway station - and a busking opera singer given structure and flow by a halting drum program and a halo of synths. A train brakes with an outrush of air, and then the field noises drop away, leaving us to contemplate their absence as the synths and rhythms continue.

The whole album is equally contemplative and delightful, with some of the playfulness of Raymond Scott’s early electronic music, and the perfect tonic at the end of a stressful day. I can imagine listening to it while traveling to make a quotidian and sometimes frustrating experience special. If you try it, let me know how it goes.

While In Transit is only on Bandcamp, you can catch up with other songs for Friday here or below.

Also Out This Week

Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon There was an obsessive quality to Will Anderson’s meticulously arranged and very loud army of guitars on 2023’s triumphant blast, Cartwheel. On this latest release, that obsession is a collective one as members of his touring band (guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston) insisted on being included in its creation. The results sacrifice none of the crushing force we’ve come to expect from Hotline while adding more detail and melodic flair. While this project/band is perhaps more concerned with sound than songs, there are several tracks here that would work in any context, such as Candle, with its ever-ascending riff and melancholy hook (“I wanna try/get butterflies”). A couple of familiar-sounding song titles, Dance The Night Away and Where U Been?, hint at a dichotomous draw towards the pop-metal of Van Halen and the grungy abandon of Dinosaur Jr., but Hotline TNT never sound like anyone but themselves.

University - McCartney, It’ll Be OK This debut album by the UK trio of Zak Bowker (vocals, guitar), Joel Smith (drums), and Ewan Barton (bass) is a wild explosion of noise, color, and anthemic vocals. Song titles like Massive Twenty One Pilots Tattoo and History Of Iron Maiden Pt. 1 show the band isn’t taking themselves too seriously, but the densely layered production is no joke.

S.G. Goodman - Planting By The Signs There’s a hypnotic throb to the first half of this album, Goodman’s third, that draws you in, like the promise of shade on a scorching day. She’s banking the fire of her voice more than on previous albums, too, finding nuance and power in restraint. That only makes it more effective when she explodes near the end of the eight-minute Heaven Song, which closes the album in epic fashion.

Alice TM - whatever god is This EP of dreamy, multicolored songs is the first transmission from the world of Alice Tolan-Mee since 2021’s Little Body In Orbit, and a perfect reminder of why I’ve been waiting for more since then.

Yaya Bey - do it afraid With 18 songs in 46 minutes, this follow-up to last year’s brilliant Ten Fold is almost more about creating an overall mood than individual songs. And that mood is often quietly confident, mellow, and wryly humorous. That’s not to say there isn’t any variety to the music, because there’s plenty, with her patented blend of hip hop, R&B, and Caribbean sounds sounding better than ever. There’s a vulnerability to the joy she brings to merlot and grigio, which is her most Bajan song yet. It’s wonderful to hear her be comfortable enough to revel in her roots.

Alberto Continentino - Cabeça a Mil e o Corpo Lento Sometimes sensuous and sometimes funky, but always smooth, this collection introduced me to a Brazilian artist that I probably should have become acquainted with a long time ago. A collaboration with Ana Frango Electrico is what finally got him into my Release Radar, and now I have another perfect soundtrack for the impending heat and humidity. I’m not surprised to see Domenico Lancellotti here, too, further suggesting that Continentino is my favorite Brazilian musician’s favorite Brazilian musician. Funny how that can work!

Amy Cimini - See You When I Get There An exciting solo viola debut from an artist who has long plied her super-charged trade in noise bands and experimental projects. Her use of electronics and distortion broadens the palette of her instrument in fascinating ways that perfectly match her sense for drama.