“What kind of music do you like?
“Challenging.”
This is my new answer to that once difficult question.
Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl’s For Translucence, released March 28, 2025 on Drag City (but that be somewhat misleading), is a titillatingly strange exploration of sounds and songs.
From the liner notes:
The debut album from Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl has evolved over several years from their initial practice of free improvisation on viola and cello into (for the moment), this: a neophonic orchestral expression. At once stimulating and soothing, For Translucence is a living, breathing meditation in which layers of acoustic strings, synthesizers, field recordings, radio and sine waves illuminate each other as they twine and grow.
For Translucence shivers with karmic energy. The challenge is paying attention.