In 2023, The Box gallery in Los Angeles, California, became the site for a gathering of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, presenting “Porch Music” and bringing together Mitchell Brown (Gasp), Paul McCarthy, Joe Potts (Airway), Alex Stevens, and John Wiese (Sissy Spacek) for a rare collaborative concert. This double album stands as both document and listening adventure: it contains a meticulously captured studio session from Paul McCarthy’s own creative space and the group's first live performance at The Box. Each set exemplifies the LAFMS tradition—where community, chance, and experimental technique are given equal weight, and the boundaries of music are constantly remade.
The sounds here are immersive and cinematic, shifting in character from textural drones and evocative washes to fragmented, spontaneous outbursts. Each musician brings distinct sensibilities to the ensemble, merging electronic manipulation, acoustic invention, and processed improvisation to shape moments that hover between abstraction and vivid narrative. The interplay results in sonic forms that melt and reassemble, allowing listeners to experience both collective intensity and subtle transformation.
Grounded by the cover art of Ace Farren Ford, Porch Music extends an invitation: enter an uncharted space where histories and techniques crisscross, and where the Los Angeles Free Music Society’s ethos of open-ended creativity is as vital now as ever. For followers of the ensemble and those newly curious, the album captures an evolving conversation—a record of both place and possibility, defined by melting sound and a shared search for what comes next.
