Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl & Macie Stewart : BODY SOUND
BODY SOUND represents the debut of aces experimental music triple threat Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl and Macie Stewart but each of the three musicians is well-established as boundary-crossing music-makers in their own right. You may know Johnson as her alter-ego Matchess, Kohl has tons of albums under her belt including last year’s gem Various Small Whistles and a Song and the busy Stewart also dropped a stellar album in 2025, When the Distance is Blue.
They’ve also collaborated in one iteration or another. Johnson has duo’ed with Kohl and Stewart with Kohl on record plus other joint ventures. So, it was a safe bet all three would ultimately be at the same place, same time and team up as a full-fledged unit. That alliance has finally flowered and it lives up to the billing. The full-range of dynamically powerful sounds Johnson, Kohl and Stewart each meticulously craft is crystallized on the fittingly named BODY SOUND. If you’re not deeply moved by their artfully layered wall of strings, voice, knob-twiddling and tape-manipulating effects, you might want to check yourself for a pulse.
BODY SOUND runs the gamut, stylistically speaking; it’s impossible to file it in a single box. Chamber music? Check. Classical contemporary? Check. Drone? Minimalism? Check and check again. Obligatory genre-blurring aside, the sonic architecture Johnson (viola), Kohl (cello) and Stewart (violin) sculpt is from the cosmos, the record’s eleven trance-like meditations probing worlds that are profoundly expressive with an intense lyrical quality to them. With forms and structures that are perpetually unfolding and unfurling, in turn opening stratas of sound culled from three unique voices that, upon each listen, reveals something new. Their hypnotic soundscapes, complete with stretches that are repetitive, other times mutating, suggests Natural Information Society if they had collaborated with the late, great electronic music composer, Pauline Oliveros.
The full weight of the trio’s emotionally-charged language comes at you instantly on album opener, “dawn | pulse,” the violin-cello-viola troika veering on its own distinctly melodic and abstract paths before ultimately converging for a three-pronged punch to the gut that is both poignant and visceral. Johnson, Kohl and Stewart say their music is based in improvisation but the feel throughout seems to lean more compositional than free. Pieces like “paper folding | disappearing” and “laundry | blood” exude an Eastern music tinge, the former built on a danceable strings-plucking motif, the latter guided by a percussive pulse and rumbling drone that has a mind-altering effect. BODY SOUND’s singularity lies in the post-production editing process, a sort of scientific meat-in-the-grinder method in which their improvisatory tones and timbres and ethereal wordless vocals were fed into analog tape machines only to come out the other side as wholly-shaped compositions. A heady synthesis of spontaneity, experimentation and compositional mettle, BODY SOUND has such emotional resonance that it shakes the foundation of soul and body, literally.
Label: International Anthem
Year: 2026
Similar Albums:
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl & Macie Stewart : BODY SOUND
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
