We were extremely impressed with Lucy Claire‘s last EP, Suite, and the follow-up EP, Collaborations No. 1, is equally impressive.  While the new EP contains two new tracks and three mixes, the variety makes the 27-minute set work well as an overall collection.

On Collaborations No. 1, the London pianist is joined not only by a string quartet, but by vocalist Alev Lenv and guitarist Bruised Skies.  The latter also contributes a remix, while other remixes come from Message to Bears and worriedaboutsatan.  These are not the acts one would expect to find among Claire’s friends, but their contributions demonstrate the breadth of her potential reach: beyond modern composition into the realms of ambient and electronic music.

The two main tracks – “Stille” and “Somnus” – are complementary opposites.  “Stille” is the more accessible track, the only overt lyric being the title.  Mournful strings are laid atop…

SO! Amplifies. . .a highly-curated, rolling mini-post series by which we editors hip you to cultural makers and organizations doing work we really really dig.  You’re welcome!

—

On July 18, 2014 all are invited to participate, observe, engage, and celebrate ways of listening with care for our sonic environment in the annual World Listening Day. This year’s theme is “Listen to you!”  But first, listen to Eric Leonardson as he reveals the history of World Listening Day and more to kick off SO!’s third annual World Listening Month.

“Noisolation Headphones” by Flickr user Machine Project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Five years ago Dan Godston came up with the idea for World Listening Day, inspired by the pioneering work of the World Soundscape Project from the 1970s, and its founder, author, and composer R. Murray Schafer. With a group of Chicago-based sound artists and phonographers we started the World Listening Project

We’ve greatly enjoyed Flaming Pines’ Birds of a Feather series, which has just reached its conclusion with Philippe Petit‘s The Kookaburra and Kate Carr‘s The Kakapo.  Over the past few years, this series of CD3″s has brought us some of the most original work in the field.  Before this series was introduced, most field recording fans were used to hearing birdsong without attribution.  Birdsong had become (and continues to be) a trope in ambient music as well, but one seldom encounters species identification.  Birders might know what they’re hearing, but the untrained ear just hears birds.  This lack of clarity was underlined in a scandal a few years back when CBS Sports was busted for adding fake birdsong to its coverage of the Masters Tournament.  In the aftermath, the network learned that there is no such thing as generic birdsong.

The final two installments of Birds of…

Editor’s Note:  This month Sounding Out! is thrilled to bring you a collection of posts that will change the way you hear cities. The Sounds of the City series will prompt readers to think through ideas about urban space and sound. Are cities as noisy as we think they are? Why are cities described as “loud”? Who makes these decisions about nomenclature and why?

We kicked things off last week with my critical reading of sound in Lorraine Hansberry’sA Raisin in the Sun, a play about African Americans in Chicago that still rings/stings true today. Regular writer Regina Bradley will discuss the dichotomy of urban and suburban in the context of sound (noisy versus quiet, respectively),  and CFP winner Lilian Radovac will share with us a photoessay on the sound installation Megaphóne in Montreal.  Today, guest writer Linda O’ Keeffe takes readers on a soundwalk of Smithfield Square…

Arriving on the heels of last year’s Soundings exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art is In the Garden of Sonic Delights, a new sound art exhibition located in Westchester County, New York.  Richard Allen reports on the opening day festivities.

Soundings was a huge step forward for the sound art community, as it was MoMA’s first exhibition of the kind.  This was a major coup for a wide field worthy of wider recognition.  But the central setting of Sonic Delights – the stunningly beautiful grounds of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York (30 miles north of NYC) make an even greater impression.  In Manhattan, one is surrounded by activity, and MoMA is a busy place; but to walk through fields and pavilions, surrounded by birds and bees and nary a car is to experience impressions of nature embedded in nature.

The…