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?

Tobias Fischer speaks to techno pioneer Jeff Mills.

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.