The Tonearm

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1970s-era photos of Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, and Linda Ronstadt
Bathed in red light, The Goddess Party performers in draped grey garments hold feathers around a raised platform topped with a glowing oval sculpture, sheer red curtains overhead. Quoted text: "Maybe my answer is that I inspired myself to build my own art choir, because I've always been creating things that I haven't seen before."
A photo of Dennis Bovell.
Nolan Hildebrand, bearded and in a tie-dye shirt, leans over a table of cables and knobs, both hands on the controls, lit in magenta and teal. Quoted text: " … to make them unsure what's electronic and what's acoustic, that kind of relationship is the backbone of what I'm interested in."
Steven Hall sits in a wooden armchair by a large window in sunglasses and a brown jacket over a grey T-shirt, one hand resting on the armrest, greenery and sunlight behind him. Quoted text: "I always think of myself as a backup singer, and I love working with lead singers and just doing harmony . . . I sing harmony to myself, and that's sort of how I get around not wanting to be out front."
Suzanne Ciani leans over a modular Buchla synthesizer strung with red, yellow, and blue patch cables, adjusting it with both hands, a sunlit ocean coastline visible through the window behind her.
Flip a Beat Club Chicago (FABC) chapter participant and artist Ace makes beats using an MPC (or "beat machine") at the bar and art space Nighthawk in Chicago on May 15. According to FABC Chicago founder Cory Morrison, participants make beats using samples provided by the club. The event is livestreamed.
Napalm Death performs on the Tiny Desk Concert
Steven Bernstein plays trumpet in profile in a studio crowded with brass instruments in the foreground, framed photos and record posters covering the walls, and shelves of books and binders behind him. Quoted text: "If you're not into Albert Ayler and you're not into Lou Reed, it's going to be hard for you to get into the gumbo."
Cento Threeo in a black-and-white portrait, three members standing against a corner wall, one with arms crossed at right, one centered with hands clasped, one at left looking aside. Quoted text: "Everything I do, I try to be intentional about, because if it's recorded, it's going to last forever. I want it to connect now, and I want it to connect later."
A piano with imtimidating barbed wire, like the kind you'd see on a battle field, blocking it.
Scrimshire seated on a log in a sunlit woodland, wearing glasses and a dark green knit sweater, looking directly into the camera. Quoted text: "My inspiration may start in a darker place, but it gradually develops into a joyful one, which is very much my intention in my music these days."
Flea and the Honora Band perform on the Tiny Desk Concert
Though some influencers largely seem like regular people sharing their love of music, the content they're making can sometimes be a form of hidden advertising.
Black-and-white grid of Hen Ogledd's four members' faces digitally sliced and swapped into a checkerboard of mismatched quarter-face composites. Quoted text: "There's some kind of pull between wanting to respond and be of use, but also to keep the work mine, keep it something of its own spirit as well."
Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye perform at an event at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York, May 21, 2022.
Steven Bernstein plays trumpet in a mirrored, multiple-exposure image, his capped figure repeated across the frame in a red wash, city building windows layered behind him.
Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre of sundayclub stand in a tiled underground passage, Carmichael in focus with red hair, St. Pierre blurred with motion behind him. Quoted text: "When you write the record, you don't really know what kind of place you're in, and you make these feelings. 'Oh, this is where I was in my life at that time.'"
redveil —performs on the Tiny Desk Concert
Alden Hellmuth stands in a studio behind two microphones, holding an alto saxophone, wearing headphones and glasses, with tattoos visible on her forearm. Quoted text: "The search is what drives music. That's the magic of it."
Diles que no me maten sit on rocky outdoor steps in black and white, smiling, with a metal railing and bare trees behind them. Quoted text: "Art is a way of moving through the world, and if you find a way to make something out of faith, love, and work for the benefit of whoever wants it, that’s being an artist."
The cover art to Soft Cell’s This Last Night In Sodom
A photo of 'Stakes Is High' era De La Soul
A photo of Julius Eastman and this quoted text from Chris Rountree of Wild Up: "It's such emotional music. It's so moving … it's almost like it's head and heart, or the spiritual psyche of our society,"
Alden Hellmuth stands in a studio behind two microphones, holding an alto saxophone, wearing headphones and glasses, with tattoos visible on her forearm.
David Watson stands playing Highland bagpipes while Bill Nace sits beside him tuning a taishōgoto, in a grainy, high-contrast halftone photograph. Quoted text: "We're improvising, but we're also mirroring each other a lot, and from within those two elements interlocking, a third element comes out."
Bow Wow joyfully performs on the Tiny Desk Concert
Dave Douglas holds a trumpet at his side, looking upward, wearing a straw hat and checked shirt, with ivy-covered foliage blurred behind him. Quoted text: "I open my eyes and my heart and my spirit to new things, and every new project is a challenge to find a new way to say what I feel needs to be said in the music."
Anne Tong eats a dumpling with chopsticks outside a restaurant as Bryce Barsten looks on, both of Chinese American Bear, Tong in a lavender sequined top, Barsten in red sunglasses. Quoted text: "You don't need to spend $10,000 to make a piece of art that resonates with people. That's not how it works.
Robert Margouleff, arms crossed, gazes off-camera against a black background, lit from the side. Quoted text: "Stevie got the idea of the synthesizer in a second. With all his songs in his head, it wasn't difficult for him to understand what to play once he learned what the synthesizer was about."
Lara Downes (left) and Salamishah Tillet met at the childhood home of Nina Simone, in Tryon, N.C.
A black and white photo of a starkly lit Félicia Atkinson in front of a metallic wall. Quoted text: Suspense appears as a subject and a contingency while making the music itself. I think I would not make music if I knew where it would end."
Dave Douglas plays trumpet in a recording studio, reading from a music stand, studio headphones pushed up on a beanie hat. A second musician at a grand piano is visible in the background.
Myra Lee photographed in black and white at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn — one member standing on a monument ledge above the other two, a column and winter market visible behind them. Quoted text: "Most of my songs have a sad story behind them, but I try to deliver them in a way that's hopeful and also fun, that you can perceive in your own way—bring your own story,"
Ora Cogan stands against a black background in a black t-shirt, glancing over one shoulder, tattooed forearms crossed in front of her. Black and white. Quoted text: "You take something that has a lot of power over you, that you don't want to have power over you, and you change your relationship to it. That's magic."
Shaboozey performs on the Tiny Desk Concert
A stark black-and-white portrait photo of Sinéad O’Connor from the 1980s.
Chik White stands in a backyard, bearded and bald, wearing a striped hoodie and cuffed trousers, as a hand in the foreground gives a thumbs-down. Quoted text: "I just sing my song. Some of it may be ugly or unmusical. But I'm just trying to express the honest song that is in me."
A high contrast black-and-white side portrait photo of Eliana Glass. Quoted text: "I think music is just like a conduit for connection with other people . . . I like getting to know people through making music."
Ora Cogan seated in a booth at an empty diner.
Mark Barrott holds a long-haired calico cat pressed against his cheek, both facing the camera, against a bright interior wall. Quoted text: "I like to soundtrack the sunset, and it is what I am known for, particularly in Ibiza. But I want to soundtrack quiet moments, too."
Billy Polo working the knobs on a mixing board at a recording studio. Quoted text: "Sometimes I'm leaning maybe ten percent more artist, or ten percent more scientist, but it's all a hundred percent archaeology."
8Ball & MJG perform on the Tiny Desk Concert
Eve performs on the Tiny Desk Concert