Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features recent releases by Chien-An Yuan's1473 and Actually, Records labels, Canterbury House's Sound and Silence podcast, atmospheric folk by Annie Bacon, and experimental sounds by Mad Myth Science and Troikastra.

Various artists, A Young Person's Guide to "Actually, Records."
Chrissy Martin, Sound Scores
Before he was Ann Arbor's Chien-An Yuan, operator of the 1473 label, he was Chicago's Chien-An Yuan, operator of the Actually, Records label, which existed 2003-2009. Where 1473 tends to focus on experimental electronics, leftfield jazz, and outsider classical, Actually, Records offers a wealth of guitars and indie-to-punk songs. A Young Person's Guide is a 14-track overview featuring music by The Red Wheelbarrow, Hope in Ghosts, Jienan Yuan, Kiter Operations, and others.

Chrissy Martin is a Chicago artist and her Sound Scores is 1473's latest foray into sound poetry—and poetry-poetry. The four tracks mix field recordings, plucked sounds (piano, kalimba), and Martin's voice as both an instrument and conveyer of poems.

Yuan is also the curator behind the upcoming Ann Arbor Art Center exhibition We are here because you were there, which runs from September 8 to October 22 and features six Asian-America artists exploring post-colonial migration in the diaspora. There's also a large slate of activities related to the exhibit, from the opening reception and family-friendly events to artist talks and a literary component.

Canterbury House's Sound and Silence podcast
Ann Arbor's Canterbury House has long been a sanctuary for music in addition to its service to the community by providing no-strings suppers, social activism, and Episcopalian ministry. Canterbury now has a podcast to highlight local artists—specifically those who are part of the Sound & Silence series of contemplative music concerts. Sound & Silence coordinator Cameron Wilson also hosts the same-named podcast, and the first guest is saxophonist Marcus Elliot, his fellow U-M grad. 

Related: UMS commissioned Elliot to create a piece to honor the "past, present, and future" of the African-American community in Ypsilanti. The saxophonist will perform the piece, "Sonic Contributions," with his seven-piece group on September 22 and 23 at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse as part of UMS's eclectic series of events at the historic space.

annie bacon & her OSHEN, "California Heat"
The next album by Ann Arbor's Annie Bacon isn't scheduled to be released until January 2024, but she recently gave listeners a sneak preview with "California Heat," at atmospheric folk-pop ballad.

Mad Myth Science, Mad Myth Science
Saxophonist-flutist Molly Jones has spent the past few years in Chicago, but she's returning to Ann Arbor to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan—and it's a welcome return of this relentless searcher of new sound combinations. Mad Myth Science is Jones' band with singer Julian Otis, cellist Wilson Tanner Smith, and cornet-percussionist Ben Zucker, and the quartet's debut album mixes free jazz, art song, and found-sound explorations.

Troikastra, It's the Door With the Little Stairs
Percussionist and keyboardist Curtis Glatter hosts a summer drum circle in Ann Arbor at the Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth. But he also spends a lot of time in Southern California based on the credits listed on his recordings, including 2023's It's the Door With the Little Stairs by Troikastra, which features Tenshun on turntables and modular synths and Nathan Hubbard on turntables and drum machines. The album is musique concrète, plunderphonics, turntablism, and synth freakouts all mashed up, which creates a nervy tension—the opposite of chill drum-circle vibes. 

You can find out a bit more about Glatter and his career via the brand-new interview he did with the CTN Ann Arbor program FYI. 

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.