Lia Kohl: Normal Sounds

Chicago-based cellist and radio artist tunes in some new sounds, with help from Ka Baird and Patrick Shiroishi

Chicago-based artist Lia Kohl is one of my favorite radio artists this decade. She seems a remarkably open improvisor, able to work with whatever transmissions she’s tuning in. On “Normal Sounds,” her new release, Kohl is playing cello again, but this time along with fewer feral frequencies. Instead, Kohl jousts and parries with 60kHz hums, car horns, turn signals, ice cream trucks, and a tornado siren. “Car Alarm, Turn Signal,” with Ka Baird, is the collection’s first single. (Baird’s “Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos” is one of my favorite albums released this year, and her performance at Tubby’s earlier this year was mesmerizing.) This collaboration is entrancing, and it is difficult to tell who is producing what sounds, the whole performance works together so well. But the next track, “Plane,” is Kohl’s tour de force here, and since it is pure radio art — some air traffic control voices beam into the proceedings — it is my favorite. Although “Car Horns,” with Patrick Shiroishi, is a close second. Shiroishi plays his own horn amidst the beeps, until the trip gets very thick with Kohl’s cello. I might like Kohl’s 2023 album “The Ceiling Reposes” a bit more, but just a smidge. “Normal Sounds” should entertain newcomers to radio art and field recordings, as well as the heads.