MUSIC

J. Ritch. “It has some of my traditional tonal acoustic music compositions,” she says. “And then I also had a couple of my electronic pieces and some electroacoustic hybrids.” The album is a marvelous hodgepodge of Ritch’s interests across classical and improv. “Oftentimes when I try to describe my music, some feedback I’ve gotten is that it’s not focused,” she admits, laughing.

Helt immediately found Ritch’s range and eclecticism exciting, though, and since String Theory he’s released several more albums featuring Ritch. Over the past five years or so, the two of them have frequently recorded themselves jamming together, and they’re putting the finishing touches on an edited album of those recordings that they hope to release on Pan y Rosas within the next year.

As the label has evolved, Helt has also developed a commitment to releasing work by women. Many experimental labels, he’s noticed, are very male dominated. “Basically it comes down to, there are lots of women cre- ating music, but because our society’s default is white dude, that is what currently rises up,” he says. “Without taking specific action to counter that inertia, white dude is what will perpetuate itself. It’s not only in experimental music—it’s all music. But experimental music is where I have a platform and where I can try to make a change.” He says he doesn’t have a quota, but he’s aiming for gender parity in the Pan y Rosas catalog.

Lauren Sarah Hayes, a Scottish musician who teaches at the Phoenix campus of Arizona State University, believes that Helt’s concerns about gender bias are well-founded. “There’s still many academic studies that demonstrate gender and also racial bias in the experimental music community and the institutions that support it,” she says. “So I think Keith’s approach is absolutely valid and important.”

Hayes has recorded for Pan y Rosas Discos herself. In 2016 the label released her album Manipulation , whose poptronica improvisations feel almost danceable until the floor collapses and synthetic life-forms start to ooze and flop and skitter in. The electronic instrument she uses on Manipulation (and in much of her music) is of her own design, but she hasn’t named it. “I’m really interested in the idea from queer theory of not overcategorizing things,” she says. “It’s just my instrument, I guess.”

Helt still puts out music through Pan y Rosas Discos: the label’s 301st album, Drop Shadow on Airport Runway by French electronic musician Nicolas Tourney, came out March 15, and a free-jazz release by Argentinian guitarist and sound artist Luciana Bass is in the works. And though Je erson Park EXP has had to suspend its in-person shows at the Je erson Park library, it’s continued as a livestream series.

Helt and his family moved to Jefferson Park in the mid-2010s, and he quickly noticed a shortage of entertainment options in the neighborhood. “There are a few things like the mighty Gift Theatre and