Sound House: Anna Johnson, iiisa & Addison Rider

Co-presented with The Low Pass. Sound House returns at an all new location! Each performance takes place in a different room.

Anna Johnson:

Anna Johnson unites electroacoustic improvisation with backgrounds in medieval folk traditions and sacred music. Based in drone and hypnotic repetition, she is invested in vocal expression as a portal to somatic and emotional presence. Anna’s performances often integrate projection installations of her textural film work, and her approach to live art is ritualistic: she seeks embodied and communal experiences of vulnerability and spiritual catharsis. She is drawn to the meeting points between personal and mythical, present and ancient.

Anna is based in Chicago and tours regularly in North America and Europe. She originates from Minnesota, where she was raised with Celtic and Anglo folk traditions and sacred choral music, and studied both Western classical as well as traditional Eastern European polyphony. She holds an MFA from the Performance department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Studio Art from Macalester College. Anna’s debut EP Unknowing was released in 2025 on UK label Industrial Coast and her debut LP Swarm of Tongues releases fall 2026 on Somnimage. She was awarded an Outer Ear Session at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio in spring 2026 for a recording project, and selected as a finalist for National Sawdust’s 2026 Hildegard Commission, which will culminate in a December 2026 concert featuring a performance of her compositional work by Trinity Choir and the National Sawdust ensemble.

iiisa:

iiisa is the electroacoustic solo project of NYC-based latinx improviser-composer, isabel crespo pardo. Merging field recordings, poemsongs, and familial voices from their home in Costa Rica, iiisa builds memory portals for the kindling of transformation. With a “pliable and fearless voice” (I Care If You Listen), they deftly guide the listener through ephemeral vignettes. Their work has been presented by Roulette Intermedium, Big Ears Festival, and Pioneer Works, and their debut album will be released in Fall 2026 on Leaving Records.

Addison Rider:

Addison Rider is a Philadelphia-based composer, performer and multimedia artist. Her work builds around the idea of perceptual intimacy, inviting listeners into musical environments that feel observant and inhabitable rather than strictly analytical. She aims to write music that breathes, music that offers sincerity, music that understands. Drawing on her background as a rock musician and songwriter, Rider’s output ranges from acoustic and electroacoustic works, to improvisatory electronic performance, and film and media scoring. Her recent projects engage with subjects of mindfulness, found sound, indexicality, meaning-making, faith, queer identity, religious deconstruction/reconstruction, and PTSD.

accessibility: the performances will be taking place in multiple rooms requiring the climbing of stairs.