Chaikin Records, Brooklyn, NY (2026)

12/23/2024

The latest release on CkR, Michael Schumacher’s Living Room Pieces, a sound installation designed for living spaces, inspired many thoughtful reviews. Thank you dearly to the journalists who spent time with the installation (a substantial task for this one) and used it as a springboard for insightful writing 💛 A brief selection which hopefully conveys a glimpse into LRP:
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Living Room Pieces defamiliarize and animate spaces with their unpredictable algorithmic presence.
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As the days went on, I started to anticipate these new sounds, and caught myself sitting in silence, consciously waiting for them to show up so I could do the equivalent of cloud-gazing... But most of all, and most to my surprise, I enjoyed this mode of listening, which seemed to upturn everything I expect from music: It was intentional but not deliberate, organized but decentralized, individual but communal, composed but set free. Turning my living room into a temporary habitat for Schumacher’s stray sounds changed my relationship to the space entirely. Lately I’ve been leaving the windows open just to listen. Cage would be proud.
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Living with a sound work is a phenomenological experience, altering our attunement to our quotidian soundscape.
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Schumacher’s influences are clear: musique concrète, indeterminacy, Marcel Duchamp… John Cage’s silence (Schumacher told me, “Silence is the basis of the whole thing”), and Living Room Pieces… moves them laterally from the art gallery or concert hall to the home…

In my brief conversation with Schumacher, the composer told me he was most interested in how coincidental occurrence offers itself up to meaning-making. My week bears that out; it took only a few seconds of listening to start personifying the sounds… This is its own source of delight.
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Seeking out the full articles from which these excerpts are drawn is highly recommended.
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Please visit chaikinrecords.com/livingroompieces for full info on the installation.
Xoxoxo, CkR

12/20/2024

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10/31/2024

New on Chaikin Records: Living Room Pieces by composer and sound designer Michael J. Schumacher.

Living Room Pieces is a sound installation for living spaces. It consists of a small custom-etched metal box housing a Raspberry Pi computer. LRP is designed to integrate seamlessly within one’s home and reframe the sonic environment.

LRP, compositionally, is structured according to a seven day cycle. Each individual day expresses a different sonic character. After seven days, the structural cycle repeats yet with newly generated content and patterning. The audio of LRP is drawn from a sound bank of over 7000 sounds. These sounds, as a whole, comprise a vast and immensely diverse range of musical shapes, textures, colors and collages. This audio undergoes live processing in real time (due to Schumacher’s programming of the installation’s built-in computer) to provide an ever-changing listening experience.

Essential to the installation’s composition is its ample use of silence. The silence here functions as a type of reoccurring ‘blank canvas’ upon which sounds arise and fade. It is this use of silence which allows the installation to integrate itself so effectively into the home setting.

And, on the lighter side, LRP is often fun, quirky and surprising; it is an amazing way to enrich one’s living space and provide some unexpected talking points :)

Living Room Pieces releases officially on November 15th. A listening party is being held on November 12th, hosted and organized by . Please come!

Visit www.chaikinrecords.com/livingroompieces for more info. Further details will be announced closer to release date.

Thank you!
Xoxo
CkR

Photo of Schumacher by

10/31/2024

New on Chaikin Records: Living Room Pieces by composer and sound designer Michael J. Schumacher.

LRP is a sound installation designed for living spaces. It consists of a small custom-etched metal box housing a Raspberry Pi computer. LRP is intended to integrate seamlessly within one’s home and be interactive within one’s sonic environment.

LRP, compositionally, is structured according to a seven day cycle. Each individual day expresses a different sonic character. After seven days, the structural cycle repeats yet with newly generated content and patterning. The audio of LRP is drawn from a sound bank of over 7000 sounds. These sounds, as a whole, comprise a vast and immensely diverse range of musical shapes, textures, colors and collages. This audio undergoes live processing in real time (due to Schumacher’s programming of the computer) to provide an ever-changing listening experience.

Essential to the installation’s composition is its ample use of silence. The silence here functions as a type of reoccurring ‘blank canvas’ upon which sounds arise and then fade. It is this use of silence which allows the installation to integrate itself so effectively into the home setting.

And, on the lighter side, LRP is often fun, quirky and surprising; it is an amazing way to enrich one’s living space and provide some unexpected talking points :)

Living Room Pieces releases officially on November 15th. A listening party is being held on November 12th, hosted and organized by . Please come!

Visit www.chaikinrecords.com/livingroompieces for more info. Further details will be announced closer to release date.

Thank you!
Xoxo
CkR

Photo of Schumacher by

05/10/2024

Skylighght by Gelsey Bell & Erin Rogers is out now!

✨ “The liminal space between notes and breath…”, Connie Li on Skylighght for I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. This beautiful phrase reflects much of the album’s vibe.

✨ Artwork is by Leah Asher . The LP is expertly mastered for vinyl by Carl Rowatti. Mixing by Ryan Streber. Recording by Ryan and Zach Herchen.

✨ Record release shows May 15 and 16 catacombs! Two sets each night at 6:30 and 8:30.

✨ Order Skylighght now via chaikinrecords.bandcamp.com or chaikinrecords.com

CKR 017

04/03/2024

✨SKYLIGHGHT by GELSEY BELL & ERIN ROGERS (CKR 017) ✨ New album on Chaikin Records releasing May 10th✨ Preorder NOW on Bandcamp✨

Skylighght is the duo project of vocalist Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers . It cultivates a minimal music built primarily on the shared organic vibrations of interlaced resonances. New performative techniques and compositional strategies have been developed to create these pieces. They are constructed from an emphasis on mutual sensitivity, awareness of sonic environment and deep listening. The title for the project takes inspiration from the one-word poetry of Adam Saroyan.

Bell and Rogers, both longterm and active members of the NYC arts community, have performed and worked together for over a decade, largely as part of new music collective thingNY. They began their Skylighght project in 2019 which premiered in May of that year. Album release concerts for Skylighght are set for MAY 15 and 16 at the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetary.

Skylighght is available now for preorder! The LP features artwork by Leah Asher and is mastered and cut for vinyl by Carl Rowatti.

In Skylighght, evocations of stillness and dissonance swell and subside as acoustic resonances combine, rebound and unite in interlocked play✨🪄🎶

💛CkR

chaikinrecords.bandcamp.com
chaikinrecords.com

Photo of Bell and Rogers by

12/15/2023

🌟OUT NOW: NYC LIMINAL SERIES, Vol. 4: Trumpet featuring
(CKR 018)
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The NYCLS spotlights NYC’s improvised/experimental community. Each edition focuses on four players of a single type of instrument. All performances are solos.
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The physical format is a cassette limited to 50 copies. All production and manufacturing was a DIY effort: audio was recorded and produced either by the artists or the label, and the mixing, mastering, artwork, layout, printing, cassette duplication and assembly was all done by the label.
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NYCLS, Vol. 4: Trumpet is available on Chaikin Records’s bandcamp page and also chaikinrecords.com
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Visit the CkR bandcamp or website for the earlier editions of the NYCLS - Vol. 1: Bass, Vol. 2: Cello and Vol. 3: Drums
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THANK YOU!!
With love
💛CkR

12/10/2023

LACE by Zeena Parkins || Boxset of GRAPHIC SCORES, LP and much more.
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Just announced: a limited edition folder of only the printed material included in the boxset: three graphic scores, notes for the performance of the scores, interview booklet with Parkins and arts critic Jen Joy poem by Downtown NYC fixture Steve Dalachinsky, album credits and notes. Purchase of the LACE folder includes a digital download of full album audio.
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LACE is a project which began in 2008 as a commission for the Merce Cunningham Dance company. Since then, the LACE project has expanded considerably. This album and collection of materials serves as major documentation for this fascinating series of performative compositions.
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LACE features renowned performers William Winant (percussion), TILT BRASS Sextet , James Fei ._fei (electronics), Maggie Parkins .parkins (cello) and Zeena Parkins (conductor)
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Available at chaikinrecords.bandcamp.com and chaikinrecords.com

PS Special thanks to for the invaluable assistance with this release

05/02/2023

Chaikin Records is deeply honored to present LACE by pioneering composer, improviser and harpist Zeena Parkins (Bjork, Ikue Mori, John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros). The album is a new LP of compositions inspired and guided by lace stitches and patterning. LACE is available digitally and as a very limited edition box set. The box set contains the LP as well as beautifully designed graphic scores, an essay and interview by writer/scholar , notes on the music and a poem by the much-beloved downtown NY poet . The performers on the LP include (percussion) ._fei (electronics) and .parkins (cello). LACE releases officially on June 30th. Preorder now at chaikinrecords.bandcamp.com or zeenaparkinsprojects.bandcamp.com!

04/14/2023

Speech Patterns by is out today! Available on very limited edition LP and cassette both featuring handmade artwork by Noah. To create the artwork, Noah used custom-made rubber stamps which reflected the patterns of the music’s MIDI notation. These patterns were then hand stamped onto the LP and cassette jackets in various intersecting formations. The LP was expertly crafted by and cassette produced by .
💙
From the liner notes by , “With this collection Noah Wall charts a new course in composition via processing recordings of human speech from a unique hybrid of auto tuning and mystique concrete, a combination of sonic applications that seems so inevitable it’s remarkable that no one else has engineered it sooner… Paradoxically, this is music that speaks to the nexus of sound and human identity that could only be achieved by machines, equally organic and synthetic.”
💜
Speech Patterns is available at chaikinrecords.bandcamp.com, noahwall.bandcamp.com and via chaikinrecords.com
💛
CkR

03/12/2023

March 29 CHAIKIN RECORDS [Williamsburg, BK] featuring ANTHONY COLEMAN & [duo] /// TOMAS FUJIWARA [solo] /// ORGANS OBSOLETE (R. Hoffman of Sightings) [solo]
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Anthony Coleman & Brian Chase -> ARCADES (CKR 006)
Tomas Fujiwara -> NYC LIMINAL SERIES vol. 3: Drums (CKR 013)
Organs Obsolete-> NYC LIMINAL SERIES vol. 1: Bass (CKR 009)
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Thank you very much and shout out to

XCkR

10/28/2022

NEW RELEASE!
Chaikin Records is thrilled to present Live at h0l0 01_31_2020 by Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist Hisham Akira Bharoocha (). Bharoocha is a longtime friend and collaborator of CkR founder - both active drummers of the Brooklyn music/art community - and representing this release is an honor.
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Live at h0l0… is both an audio release and visual art series. The audio component consists of a live performance by Bharoocha at a festival entitled drumXdrum: a festival of polyrhythms; this festival was curated by renowned percussionist - and musical hero to both Bharoocha and Chase - .ibarra. Bharoocha’s performance is built upon his use of the highly sophisticated drum sensor technology; the acoustic drumset is thus transformed into an elaborate MIDI controller triggering electronic sounds and samples. The electronic sounds for these compositions are inspired by and derived from Bharoocha’s cultural background which stems from a Japanese / Indian / Myanmar heritage.
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The visual component consists of a series of over 50 artworks custom made for the ‘canvas’ of the cassette-tape cover. These artworks are all handcrafted by Bharoocha and showcase his distinctive collage-based style; in making these artworks Bharoocha regarded them as fine-art pieces with source material for each collage coming from original printed ephemera. As a compliment to the audio, the visual imagery suggests a panoply of associations based on tone, texture and juxtaposition. Each individual artwork is signed and numbered by the artist.
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Live at h0l0… is available on purple-tinted cassette with pattern design by Bharoocha as well as digital download. Both can be purchased via Bandcamp (link in bio for the time being) and also chaikinrecords.com. The CkR site has a gallery of the artworks.
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Thank you!
💛
CkR

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