Close/Far Recordings is thrilled to announce its first vinyl edition.
The album Lead & Coal: A Sounding, is one part of a larger, eponymous sound art and critical spatial practice project by NNN Cook, Nokosee Fields, Gavin Kroeber, Josh Levi and Aaron Owens, exploring mining landscapes in St. Louis’ constitutive hinterlands: the Old Missouri Lead Belt and Southern Illinois Coal Belt.
19th-century St. Louis could arguably be understood as an extractivist war machine: digging up coal from Illinois, melting lead from Missouri, producing armaments for the St. Louis Arsenal, and provisioning the genocidal military forces at Jefferson Barracks. Over the past year, artists NNN Cook, Nokosee Fields, Gavin Kroeber, Josh Levi, and Aaron Owens have been visiting these post-industrial territories and performing “soundings”—sonic experiments conducted on, in, at, with, and for the land. This album collects recordings from this artistic fieldwork.
Album editions available at two upcoming performances:
October 23rd in St. Louis, MO at the William A. Kerr Foundation
Presented by Tulsa Artist Fellowship in collaboration with Counterpublic
November 7th in Tulsa, OK at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship
Presented by Tulsa Artist Fellowship
NNN Cook — synthesizers, oscillators, ocarina, tapes, voice
Nokosee Fields — violin, electronics, bowed towel rack, conch shell, voice
Josh Levi — synthesizers, electronics, tapes, voice
Rick Wilson - field recordings
Gavin Kroeber and Aaron Owens — research, landscape choreography, geomancy
Signed and numbered artist’s multiple | Edition of 100
Includes a printed Obi strip and full-color booklet designed by Josh Levi featuring research and fieldwork photos by Aaron Owens and an essay by Gavin Kroeber.
Funding for Lead & Coal: A Sounding was provided by The Luminary’s Futures Fund, a regional regranting initiative made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a place-based, durational award dedicated to supporting visionary arts practitioners.
Close/Far Recordings | c/f 042 | MMXXV
$35
US shipping: $6
Intl shipping: $22
#FuturesFund #regionalregrantingprogram
As many of you know, New Music Circle is such an important resource, organization, and force in experimental music in St. Louis - and if I’m being honest, the country. Established in 1959, NMC has been one of the longest running presenters of avant garde and forward thinking music. The org has helped create and sustain a long-standing ecosystem that continues to platform emerging artists in the field and celebrate its originators. I am proud to be the current Board President and help shape each season line-up along with our incredible board. Between our seasonal program and workshops with educators around the city, we aim to continue enriching St. Louis’ cultural footprint.
On this Give STL Day, we are asking you to continue this work - Please consider donating today!
Link where the links are
I made it to 40! So grateful for this beautiful, complex, and surreal life I’ve gotten to live. I try my hardest not to let a single second be taken for granted. It’s hard to admit, but I am proud of myself for overcoming all the things I’ve had to navigate in order to create the life I want to live. To my family, my friends, and my community - each and every one of you has left your own indelible mark on the rich tapestry that is my existence and for that I am forever grateful. I know there’s so much more life to live but for now 🥂to creating, building, learning, and more years of making the best of this world in order to create a better world. BIG love to you all! 📸: @thenationalmal 🥰
Really stoked for Friday’s free show at the Kerr Foundation! Sound Judgement was organized by the folks and freaks in STL’s DIY and underground communities. Offering a line-up of bands and vendors, this entire evening should have something for everyone. Let’s commune IRL and share a cry and/or laugh. See you there!
Happy Birthday Mallory. What can I say that hasn’t already been said. What a joy, a privilege it is to get to spend my hours, my days, my years alongside you as we grow and shape each other to be the best version of ourselves, the best version of us. You’ve taught me so much about giving the world your all for the greater good. As we grow our family (#3 on the way!!) and create the future we want, I am so heartened by the fact that this is all rooted in our love. I’m so excited for this next chapter of our lives as we take another leap. I wouldn’t choose anyone else to build a universe with. “We’re so lucky” - you’re god damn right we are. I love you!
Next up: 2024 ISSUE Project Room Artist-In-Residence and anno recording artist Axine M (NYC) will be hitting St. Louis for the very first time. Their frenetic and bombastic electronic works are genre-defying, effervescent, and buoyant. Never tethered to one mode, Axine M’s work is a true representation of aural freedom - breakneck bpms, warped beats flurry downward into a rapid-fire staccato leaving dancefloors and galleries alike - writhing, wanting more. Chicago-based experimental composer Sarah Lutkenhaus’ dynamic work marries expansive textural forms against vocal interspersions. Her sonic lexicon creates a world where hiss and scree traverse across atmospheric spectral fields. Do. Not. Miss.
St. Louis’ own Radiator Greys blends an amalgam of tape loops, no-input feedback, and corrosive synthesizer re-works to create immersive, introspective sonic landscapes. The Power of Negative Thinking. Nadyr, a respected ambient musician in his own right and Co-founder of the Materia raves, hits the decks all night with a mix of dark alley dub and hypnotic bass music.
Thursday, March 5 at Kerr Foundation. 8pm. $10-20 Suggested Donation. BYO___. Poster: @touchfreak
RSVP for S.L.U.G. Workshop #2: Booking/Programmer Salon. Join your fellow underground/DIY music bookers and event programmers to discuss the state of shows in St. Louis, showbooking best practices, and addressing the challenges that independent event production/DIY show spaces face in 2026. This ongoing conversation will be used to guide S.L.U.G. Workshops in the publication of a “How to Book a Show” zine. This workshop takes place Saturday, February 21 from 1-4pm at @dissonantworks Link in Bio
