Experimental Sound Studio

12/21/2024

It’s that time of year! From December 21-January 9, ESS goes on our annual all-staff break. During this time, we make a valiant attempt to step away from daily tasks and take time to truly rest.

We hope you’ll do the same, to the extent that you’re able.

See you in the new year. We can’t wait to share what’s coming up.

Photo: performance by Bambi Kunst as part of Florasonic: In Relation to Ferns, 2024

12/20/2024

Want to be more involved in a community of folks interested in experimental music & sound art?

ESS has restructured our membership and support so that ANYONE who donates ANY AMOUNT can choose to PLUG-IN to education and community opportunities throughout the year.

Support art AND connect with like-minded folks in 2025? Yes please! 🙌

All opportunities are designed for in-person and virtual engagement so that you don’t need to live in Chicago to be in the mix.

Link to support in bio. ✨

12/17/2024

Reminder that the 2024 Annual ESS Winter Recording Special is available until the end of the year! $250 for a 4 hour session.

DETAILS
-$250 for a 4-hour session with a professional engineer (that’s a $50 savings!) AND a one-year ESS membership

-Must be purchased by December 31, 2024

-Must be used by December 31, 2025

-Limit ONE Winter Special per person

-Additional hours may be booked at the time of scheduling for the rate of $75/hour

-Must be booked as a single 4-hour session; cannot split the hours between multiple days; does not include site-specific or video work; may be applied to mixing and mastering

Link:
https://buff.ly/3P1Rkbg

12/12/2024

ESS is proud to be a 2024 Ruth Arts Core Grants Recipient! We are so grateful to Ruth Arts for their empathetic, committed, and connected approach to grantmaking.

Every year Ruth Arts choose a theme for grant proposals, which we at ESS take as an opportunity to reflect on our recent work and rearticulate our vision and approach. This year the prompt was: "What are the ways your organization practices improvisation? How are you creatively shaping and shifting your work to ensure you are working towards the future you want?"

The simplified version of our answer to this is that we are improvising constantly, in every facet of our work because we have intentionally structured ESS as a collection of malleable resources, platforms, and networks all working in service of supporting and propelling artists' visions. Both internally and externally, we strive to operate as a collection of people working with and for other people. The way this manifests changes year to year, and sometimes within the space of one program, in response to what artists say they need and what the work demands.

We look forward to working with you in the coming year and to continuing to find ways of connecting artists and resources.

12/06/2024

Warm yourself up with one of our ESS long sleeves. So warm you'll still be smiling in 19 degree weather! Featuring a classic ESS logo on the front and sleeves.

ESS Long-Sleeve T-shirt with classic ESS logo on front and sleeves. 100% Cotton. Printed on Bella+Canvas Airlume Jersey. T-shirt design by James Wetzel.

11/29/2024

IT’S TIME: the 2024 Annual ESS Winter Recording Special is live! 🎉 $250 for a 4 hour session.

👉 Purchase before 6pm Saturday, 11/30 will have a chance to win 2 tickets to see Hayden Pedigo at Epiphany Center for the Arts on 12/1.

Link to purchase: https://ess.org/news/2024winterrecordingspecial

DETAILS
-$250 for a 4-hour session with a professional engineer (that’s a $50 savings!) AND a one-year ESS membership

-Must be purchased by December 31, 2024

-Must be used by December 31, 2025

-Limit ONE Winter Special per person

-Additional hours may be booked at the time of scheduling for the rate of $75/hour

-Must be booked as a single 4-hour session; cannot split the hours between multiple days; does not include site-specific or video work; may be applied to mixing and mastering

11/20/2024

In the early spring of 2023, ESS and Fence invited visual and sound artist Spencer Hutchinson and poet and writer Alyssa Perry to participate in the first cross-disciplinary exchange and collaboration between our nonprofit arts organizations. ESS and Fence opened their sound and text archives to the two artists, so each might gamely cross over into exploration and encounter works from the less familiar field.

Their corresponding textual creations can be found in the pages of Fence issue 41 and via the links that follow:

https://buff.ly/4eLglSp
https://buff.ly/3AScsgG

Tragically, Spencer passed away earlier this year. His artworks, video, and music are a richly various and lasting legacy - Fence included links to all sorts of his astonishing projects on their Tribute page:

https://buff.ly/3AQ1qIV

Next time you're at ESS, we hope you'll take a moment to enjoy a work that Spencer donated to ESS last fall, which we are honored to now have permanently installed in the main ESS stairway (last picture).

11/20/2024

Join us this Friday, November 22nd for the opening of SUN RA: an exploration of the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection at The Fourtunehouse Art Center from 3PM - 9PM.

Pictured are some photos from the archives at ESS.

The SUN RA/EL SATURN COLLECTION consists of approximately 600 tapes dating from the 1950s-1993 that represent the work of iconoclastic composer and bandleader Sun Ra. The recordings provide a unique documentation of Sun Ra’s creative process, including his work with the Arkestra and its offshoots, vocal groups in Chicago, legendary trumpeter/composer Hobart Dotson, and African percussionists in New York. The collection consists of rehearsal tapes, recordings of live concerts, home recordings of sketches and experiments, and master tapes of material likely intended for commercial release. A number of tapes include lectures and recitations by Ra of original unpublished texts, which offer rare insight into his unique philosophy and a broader context for his musical ideas.

The exhibition will feature contemporary works with samples of tapes, cassettes, reels, and other physical media forms from the collection.

This project is made possible with support from the Reva and David Logan Foundation.

https://buff.ly/4fEcUxN

11/13/2024

Movie nights w/ Fourtune House

This time we’ll be diving into two special joints - Space is the Place and The Brother From Another Planet.

Space is the Place shows on Saturday, November 23rd at 7PM and The Brother From Another Planet shows the following Saturday.

4410 South Cottage Grove Avenue
FREE

Tickets on buff.ly/3USA8Iz

11/11/2024

We recently hosted sound artist and musician Hara Alonso for a two-week residency in collaboration with During her time in our studio, Hara explored new compositions, recording piano and electronic works, and collaborated with Chicago-based artists Lia Kohl and Veronica Anne Salinas ._.anne

Hara’s final presentation offered a glimpse into her creative journey. She shared works in progress featuring Lia, highlighting her approach to merging acoustic and electronic sounds, followed by live improvisations with Veronica.

Stay tuned for more sounds from the residency!

11/09/2024

Join us November 22nd - December 1st for SUN RA: an exploration of the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection at The Fourtunehouse Art Center

The SUN RA/EL SATURN COLLECTION consists of approximately 600 tapes dating from the 1950s-1993 that represent the work of iconoclastic composer and bandleader Sun Ra. The recordings provide a unique documentation of Sun Ra’s creative process, including his work with the Arkestra and its offshoots, vocal groups in Chicago, legendary trumpeter/composer Hobart Dotson, and African percussionists in New York. The collection consists of rehearsal tapes, recordings of live concerts, home recordings of sketches and experiments, and master tapes of material likely intended for commercial release. A number of tapes include lectures and recitations by Ra of original unpublished texts, which offer rare insight into his unique philosophy and a broader context for his musical ideas.

The exhibition will feature contemporary works with samples of tapes, cassettes, reels, and other physical media forms from the collection.

Join us for the opening on November 22nd, 2024 from 3PM - 9PM.

Programming will be available throughout the exhibition - RSVP to be kept in the loop!

Artists, look out for the submission form as well! We’re accepting works for this one!

This project is possible with support from the Reva and David Logan Foundation.

https://buff.ly/4fEcUxN

11/02/2024

What. A. Year! From November 4-8, ESS staff is taking an organization-wide Digital Break Week. After a very full year and with a full year coming up, we're taking a moment to connect with one another offline. We hope you'll take some time during the intensity of this week as well! Perhaps we'll see you in person out in the world, otherwise, we'll see you back in your device the week of November 11😊

11/01/2024

Paul Hertz presents new visual, audio, and intermedia works created with his new free, libre open source software library for Processing, PixelAudio. PixelAudio maps arrays of audio samples onto arrays of pixel values and allows you to play with both interchangeably. You can turn audio into images and images into audio, process both audio and images with FFT-based filters, and draw onto images to trigger audio events. The opening will include prints created with PixelAudio, musical performances, and a presentation on PixelAudio features. At a later date, Paul will present a hands-on workshop for people interested in using PixelAudio for live performance, animation, and audio generation.

Saturday, November 9
Doors: 6PM
Performance: 7PM
Experimental Sound Studio

https://buff.ly/3C5MOWe

10/29/2024

Join ESS for 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴, featuring the Eli Winter Ensemble at Bond Chapel this Sunday, November 3rd at 8pm.

Eli Winter is a writer, composer, and self-taught guitarist based in Chicago. Reaching across technical styles and musical idioms, Winter has developed a practice rooted in listening and collaboration, drawing inspiration from luminaries like fellow Houstonian Pauline Oliveros, his compatriots across Chicago’s jazz scene and beyond, and a host of guitar heroes. In his evolving work Ghost Notes, Winter explores new compositional methods, collaging and sculpting a bank of samples reaching back across years of recordings created with friends and fellow travelers, from studios to living rooms. This ensemble performance in Bond Chapel assembles a group of musicians who appeared on the original recordings, playing through the new works live as compositions for the first time and taking them as launchpads for further improvisation.

Eli Winter - electric guitar and piano
Tyler Damon - drums
Gerrit Hatcher - tenor saxophone
Andrew Scott Young - upright bass
David Sexton - violin, bowed guitars
Sam Wagster - pedal steel guitar

Co-presented by the Renaissance Society and Experimental Sound Studio.

Free, advance registration is encouraged.

📸 Eli Winter, Photo: Ricardo Adame

https://buff.ly/3UnH5Bl

10/28/2024

ATTENTION CHICAGO MUSICIANS: 5 days left to apply for a retirement matching grant from Golden Egg! Golden Egg is an artist-led initiative strengthening financial security for Chicago’s freelance musicians. Applications close at 11:59 PM on November 1, 2024.

Applications take less than 15 minutes and are open to all Chicago musicians between the ages of 20-65 whose individual adjusted gross income is less than $80k. More information and application are available at goldeneggchicago.org.

ESS is proud to be a lead institutional partner for this initiative, which aligns with our core value that the artist is the center of the creative process—in order to support artists, we need to take care of the WHOLE artist, including their financial security. We believe that through collaboration, we can find pathways that actually serve our community. Applying in this pilot year is the first step!

https://buff.ly/4dZej0M

10/19/2024

🏡🛍️📦📱💻🎮📷📚🧸🖨️📺🔌💸🔖⚡️
TOMORROW!!! TOMORROW!!! TOMORROW!!!
🏡🛍️📦📱💻🎮📷📚🧸🖨️📺🔌💸🔖⚡️

10/14/2024

Explore the synthesis of code, sound and moving images in this multimedia presentation and demo with Lisa Glenn Armstrong. The group will discuss historical as well as contemporary contexts for conjuring moving images with sound. Lisa will share her research and how she’s been customizing the Critter & Guitari EYESY synth patches with some light programming in Python.

There will be time after the session to connect with the panelists and each other. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Patchbent Sessions are a meeting place and learning community for women, trans, and non-binary people. Each session features a workshop in sound technology presented by local teaching sound artists.

At this time, Patchbent Sessions are open only to women, trans, non-binary and gender expansive participants in an effort to encourage equity in sound and audio spaces. All levels welcome, no experience necessary.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Doors: 6 PM
Workshop: 6:30 PM
Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N Ravenswood Ave
Pay-what-you-can

https://buff.ly/3Y9tL4q

10/11/2024

The fourth ESS Creative Audio Archive Mixtape comes from Lily Finnegan. Please enjoy her selections and full mix on the ESS soundcloud page

From Lily...

"Somehow the ESS archive manages to cover a big portion of my musical background. My music foundation is rooted in punk, rock, jazz and funk, largely due to my parents. Most of the archive covers alternative and underground music from the 1980’s and 1990’s, some which my parents were fans of (partially explaining why I feel so connected). This was some of the first music I ever heard. “Dry” by PJ Harvey was one of the first CD’s my dad gave me when I was around 10. Nirvana is a major reason I started playing drums at age 12. At the end of middle school, I checked out “Jazz In Silhouette” by Sun Ra from the library. As a family, we attended Bill Frissell concerts. I’v spent hours playing along to James Brown My mind was blown when I heard Minutemen in high school, emphasizing my love for funky punk. Soon after, I also discovered Sonny Sharrock and Milford Graves. Moving to Chicago I met my ultimate hero Hamid Drake and now get to play in a band with Ken Vandermark. All these artists and more are included on this mix, sharing a special place in my heart.

I believe it’s important to follow the art that makes you FEEL something. All this music has clearly done so for me. It’s become a reason to keep going in this apocalyptic world because beauty still exists, which will fortunately never go away. Forward momentum creates a desire to keep creating, an energy I try to tap into every day. If I can trust my passions, turn ons, and community, maybe some things will be alright. Nothing interesting fits neatly in a box. Once I realized I didn’t have to chose between seemingly contrasting categories, I felt more free. And maybe there are more common threads then different between everything I like. For one, cool art doesn’t give a f**k about achieving some socially accepted marker of “success”. Do what you want, and some people will connect to that genuineness. All these artist represent that to the highest degree."

The CAA Mixtape Series is supported by the Reva and David Logan Foundation