Kurt Gottschalk

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. ASHLEY

Robert Ashley is widely considered one of the great American composers of the post-Cage generation. Ashley created radical new forms of opera, incorporating electronic music and pioneering the use of opera in television. His multimedia projects expanded upon the form in surprising, often perplexing ways. Kurt Gottschalk spoke to Ashley in 2013 for a major feature in the 13th issue of White Fungus. At the time, Ashley was working on his opera Quicksand, which he completed before his passing in March 2014. The article can now be read online.

Becoming the Masters

The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Five Decades of Great Black Music

Avant-garde jazz group The Art Ensemble of Chicago has been breaking boundaries for more than five decades. Kurt Gottschalk takes a deep dive into the group's history and its continuing evolution in the present. "A revolutionary who’s unwilling to change won’t likely be revolutionary for long," Gottschalk writes. Read an extended excerpt from the author's feature which runs over 30 pages in the new 17th issue of White Fungus.

To Sleep, Perchance to Hear

An Inquiry Concerning the Possibilities and Vagaries of Listening to Music while Sleeping — with Testimonial Consideration by Composers and Practitioners in the Field

Max Richter and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) performing Sleep at Spring Studios, New York, 2018. Photos Mike Terry.

Kurt Gottschalk attended a New York performance of Max Richter's SLEEP, in which audience members are invited to stay overnight at a concert, slowing down to share a collective, somatic experience of music. Gottschalk reported on the experience for White Fungus. Speaking to other composers on the topic, and revisiting historic works, he extended his inquiry to consider at length this different process of listening.