Sound American

“The 127-page book was designed by Remake Design (who also created the now iconic Donald Judd: Writings book) and features words by or about Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Ornette Coleman, Nicole Kaack, Bradford Bailey, G. Lucas Crane, Jennie Gottschalk, Ambrose Akinmusire, Mats Gustafsson, Peter Margasak, Terry Riley, Kim Brandt, John Cage, Josh Sinton, Edgard Varése, Marc Hannaford, John Zorn, Matthew Mehlan, Million Tongues Festival, Alex Mincek, Lester St. Louis, and Steve Lehman. Each book is thoughtfully designed and printed in Belgium on quality paper with a lay-flat binding. Beyond being simply a journal issue suitable for the periodicals section of your library, these are artfully designed and rigorously constructed books meant to sit aside your favorite novels. Printed using offset lithography in a special Pantone color throughout. Bound with the highest quality thread-sewn binding, using cold glue and Otabind™, so the book lies open and stays completely flat, and will last for a lifetime. Printed on Holmen paper, an excellent Swedish stock. Printed by die Keure, one of the finest book printers in the world in a limited edition of 500.” - Sound American

"Featuring remembrances and appreciations of the deeply missed composer by Stephen Drury, Rhonda Rider, David Rakowski, Bryan Hayslett, Chris Fisher-Lochheed, Eliza Brown, Scott Wheeler, and Ben Hjertmann. As well as articles by or with Jerome Harris, Charissa Noble, Rick Moody, Sam Amidon, Colin Stetson, Claire Chase, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels. Also photos from Katherine Desjardins and exquisite corpse from Shawn Jaeger! Printed using offset lithography in a special Pantone color throughout. Bound with the highest quality thread-sewn binding, using cold glue and Otabind™, so the book lies open and stays completely flat, and will last for a lifetime. Printed on Holmen paper, an excellent Swedish stock. Printed by die Keure, one of the finest book printers in the world in a limited edition of 500." - Sound American

"Sound American Publications announces its 27th issue, THE LIFE ISSUE, a reflection upon the smallness—and largeness—of living amidst a tumultuous, globally-shared moment. The Life Issue contributors include claire rousay, who writes about the many cuts accumulated while learning something new; pedal steel superhero Susan Alcorn recounts a battle with injury; composer Jack Langdon offers Sound American’s second fiction offering, a story of how the pandemic affects a fictional musician, presenter, and listener; composer Lea Bertucci interviews improvising vocalist Audrey Chen about identity, commitment to music, and motherhood; bass clarinetist Katie Porter lets us in on a quarantine’s worth of deep-questioning and the looping beauty of banality.

"Sound American’s ongoing series, 'Sites of Formation,' celebrates the piano, featuring writing by pianists Pat Thomas (on Ahmed Abdul-Malik) and Cory Smythe (on Henri Pousseur), as well as Dr. Douglas Rust on the Elliott Carter Piano Sonata and Sound American’s editor, Nate Wooley on the Vangelis’s keyboard-heavy soundtrack to Chariots of Fire. This issue also includes writing by saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos on NYC guerilla concerts during lockdown and a roundtable discussion from members of the Catalytic Sound collective—Ken Vandermark, Luke Stewart, and Bonnie Jones led by Brock Stuessi—on their work to create a streaming platform as an alternative to Spotify.

"This issue’s Exquisite Corpse is an elegant, nostalgic site-specific work by composer, flutist, vocalist Ka Baird. The Life Issue also features a world-premiere, sixteen-page set of drawings with introduction by Lebanese-born, Berlin-based artist Mazen Kerbaj. The drawings feature his intimate, aching, everyday trek through multiple shutdowns.

"As we move on from a generation-defining year-and-a-half, The Life Issue allows some of the artists we love to speak intimately as people: people who happen to make art. Without requiring responses to the great traumas of the last eighteen months, the issues allows them to reaffirm their everyday humanity through the small injuries and victories, the days of nothing happening, and the ways that they try to fit in as small parts of a huge world. A unique issue of Sound American, it reaffirms the journal’s mission of making music for everyone in new and unexpected ways. Edition of 500.” -Sound American

"Sound American Publications is pleased to announce the release of SA28: The Mapping Issue, guest-curated by Kyla-Rose Smith of Found Sound Nation. This issue presents the ideas of musicians and composers whose work is vital and whose voices should be more widely known outside of their native countries. SA28 begins with a conversation between curator Smith and SA’s Editor-in-chief, Nate Wooley. It then turns to vocalist Eva Salina Primack, who discusses motherhood, rural living, and the influence of Serbian singer Vida Pavlović. The London-based jazz phenom Shabaka Hutchings describes his journey with the shakuhachi, and Ghanaian pop-singer, Poetra Asantewa uses a damaged knee as a metaphor for collaboration as a necessary “joint.” South African artist Umlilo takes a deep dive into the healing power of making their most recent record, and the Indonesian singer and composer Peni Candra Rini talks about tradition and loss with Found Sound Nation’s co-artistic director, Elena Moon Park. The issue also features two legends of Latin American music: Cergio Prudencio—Bolivian founder of the Orchestra of Experimental Native Instruments (OEIN)—who looks at the “experimental” and “new” through anti-colonial lens, and Jocy de Oliveira—the legendary Brazilian composer and experimentalist—speaking with a new generation of Brazilian electronic musicians in the form of techno-wizard, Marcioz.

"SA28’s Sites of Formation articles feature American icons new and old. Chicago trumpeter Ben Lamar Gay offers a meditation on Louis Armstrong’s 'West End Blues,' and West-Coast composer/bagpiper Matthew Welch gives an appreciation of Lou Harrison. Detroit-based percussionist and artist Ben Hall writes about his experiences as a student of Milford Graves and Bill Dixon and Peter Margasak reviews Yarn/Wire’s revolutionary Currents series. The issue finishes with the most recent installment in a long-running conversation between Wooley and legendary composer Annea Lockwood. This issue’s Exquisite Corpse is a unique and personal call-to-attention by composer Jules Gimbrone.

"Many of the names in SA28: The Mapping Issue will be new to our audience, giving readers the opportunity to not only discover new music and sound, but allowing them to access ways of thinking, ways of making, and ways of being that they may not have considered before. This is an issue to open eyes, ears, and hearts. Edition of 500." - Sound American