Music

Kurt Gottschalk dives deep into the mythos of the legendary San Francisco avant-garde collective the Residents, who for decades protected their anonymity behind iconic eyeball masks. He peels back the layers of their conceptually loaded, groundbreaking work and their Theory of Obscurity, asking: does it even matter who they are?

In 2016, Detroit techno legend Jeff Mills performed his reworked soundtrack to Walter Ruttmann’s classic 1927 film "Berlin: Symphony of a Great City" live in Berlin, reacting in real time to the images, mixing the score in DJ fashion, and adding live beats. On the occasion of that performance, Tobias Fischer spoke with Mills about a wide range of topics: his early days DJing in the 1970s and the shift from drums to turntables; his radio breakthrough as The Wizard; embracing imperfection and capturing the moment in the studio; creating freely beyond audience expectations; and why, for him, the idea of a work, rather than its tools or results, takes precedence.

In 2016, White Fungus published an article by Kurt Gottschalk exploring his long-standing love and fascination with Dolly Parton, accompanied by original drawings of Parton by Emma Gineering. Sparked by a postcard for Stephen Vitiello’s installation “Dolly Ascending”—featuring an image of the icon—that sat on Gottschalk’s desk for many years, he set out to understand her nearly universal popularity. He examines avant-garde responses to her, including the B-side of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” and Vicki Bennett’s track “Dolly Pardon,” before traveling to Dollywood and discovering that many of his assumptions about her were wrong.

Kyra Kordoski interviews Merzbow and Balázs Pándi about their ongoing collaboration.

Yan Jun talks to Lasse Marhaug, one of the primary forces in the Norwegian noise scene.

Tobias Fischer writes about Pauline Oliveros' ground-breaking life in music.