14/11/2025
‘Various Small Whistles and a Song’ by Lia Kohl is out now!16 one-minute tracks which include contributions from claire rousay, Macie Stewart, Patrick Shiroishi among others. As the title suggests, it’s a direct response to Ed Ruscha’s 1964 photographic artist book ‘Various Small Fires and Milk’, and shares the same celebration of ordinariness, deadpan humor and depth.
Available now on 10” vinyl and digital – link in bio or at tonight where Lia will present the album.
All music composed and performed by Lia Kohl
Field recordings by Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart (4), Patrick Shiroishi (5), Colin Held (7), Corey Smith, Ellie Mejía, and Anna Fox (8), Jesse Perlstein (10), claire rousay (11), and Steve Rosborough (13)
Mixed by Lia Kohl
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Design and layout by Jelle Martens
.rosborough
The structure of the album—16 one-minute tracks—directly mirrors Ruscha’s book, which comprises 15 photographs of fire and one of a glass of milk. Ruscha’s “small fires” are represented here by recordings of whistles—mostly human whistling, with occasional appearances by train whistles, emergency whistles, and a woman selling penny whistles on the street in Guangzhou, China. About this choice of material, Kohl writes: “I’ve always been captivated by whistling—it’s musical but often a bit unconscious; usually solo but often done in public places. There’s something tender and human about hearing someone whistle, a socially acceptable version of hearing their mind wander.” As with Ruscha’s photographs, the whistles are not random snapshots but windows into social situations, narratives, or spaces.
The “milk” of the title — the 16th photograph in Ruscha’s book — is interpreted here as a single recording: a group of people singing together in Barcelona around 6 a.m. on New Year’s morning, captured through the floor of an Airbnb. Kohl describes this as a social, collective sound that contrasts with the solitary nature of whistling. The song functions as a counterbalance—a quiet celebration of shared experience.
