BrookeLynn Cohol & Andrew Kurilic Stay In The Craft While Expanding The Work
The musicians behind The 232 are turning decades of live performance into a broader exploration of sound and sensory experience.
There is often a moment during a live performance when a room changes. Conversations soften. Heads turn. People who seemed distracted a few minutes earlier begin listening. For longtime musicians BrookeLynn Cohol and Andrew Kurilic, recognizing that shift has become second nature. After much time spent performing, writing, and developing their craft, they have learned that a life in music does not have to depend on one path, one market, or even one definition of what it means to be an artist.
Today Cohol and Kurilic perform throughout the Midwest as The 232, following years in the California music scene. They continue playing live not because every venue is glamorous or every gig promises a bigger opportunity, but because musicianship, in a very real way, demands performing in front of people. “There is no substitute for playing in front of a live crowd,” Cohol says. “You learn to listen differently. You learn to read a room. You learn to know when the energy changes, when people start paying attention and when a song connects. And most importantly you cement that final puzzle piece into the art of being a musician.”
A Career That Keeps Moving
Kurilic began his professional career as a drummer, guitarist, piano player and songwriter in the Los Angeles area. His varied musical background includes working alongside many accomplished musicians, and his development as a multi-instrumentalist and composer has continued throughout his career. As for Cohol, she brings more than two decades of experience as a singer, songwriter, and performer. Her professional path extends also into film, beauty product development, marketing, and entrepreneurship as well.
Together they have faced a reality familiar to any career [musician]—Artists never control all conditions, instead they learn to respond and adapt to them.
Some audiences arrive ready to listen. Others have to be won over. The atmosphere of a room can turn on a dime. Years of witnessing those moments gave Cohol and Kurilic a practical understanding of something musicians experience intuitively: sound can profoundly influence the way people feel about themselves, and also how they feel about a space.
For Cohol, that observation eventually led to a larger question. If sound can shape an experience so dramatically, what role can the other senses play?
From The 232 To A Wider Sensory Experience
That question became part of the thinking behind Ella Vatour, the beauty and sensory-focused company founded by Cohol. The brand explores attention through the senses, connecting products, music, and creative experiences around an invitation to become more aware of what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste.
At first glance, the concept may appear far removed from the world of working musicians. For Cohol, the connection has become obvious. ‘’A familiar melody taken in through the ears can cause a memory to come flooding back—and so, most powerfully, can a scent! Music can alter the feeling of a room within seconds—visual details, textures, flavors. Fragrances can also become a key part of how a person remembers or responds to a moment.’’
“Great musicians pay attention,” Cohol says. “You listen to each other. You’re watching the audience. You’re reacting to timing, energy, dynamics and emotion. I have been experiencing and learning about these effects for much of my adult life and I’ve noticed how scent has many of the exact, and sometimes even more powerful, effects.”
Seen through that lens, Ella Vatour is less a departure from Cohol's musical career than it is an extension of it.
Building With Music
Music has become part of Ella Vatour itself.
Kurilic contributes original compositions to the brand, bringing another dimension to its identity. One example is “Dream 68,” an Ella Vatour composition featuring a saxophone and flute performance from Lenny Kravitz side man, Harold Todd. Ella Vatour's official page, of course, credits Todd and describes his stellar contribution to the recording.The track is also listed as a 2024 Ella Vatour release on Apple Music.
This illustrates another possibility for musicians. The skills developed through decades of performance do not have to remain confined to a conventional stage. Live performance is just one outlet. Songwriting is another. Composition and music created for broader creative projects can also offer additional places for the craft to live and thrive.
The 232 continues to perform live because, as they will tell you, “Nothing beats playing for a live audience!” That said, what is always growing is their ability to recognize how much of what they learned through music can be applied elsewhere.
Staying In The Craft Without Standing Still
The music business rarely, if ever, offers a single reliable path, and careers built over decades often follow unpredictable journeys. Cohol and Kurilic appear comfortable allowing their work to evolve accordingly.
They continue to perform, compose, and write while applying lessons from a music life to connect to other creative works. The stage remains important, but it is not the only place where their musicianship finds expression.
Years spent studying sound, timing, atmosphere, emotion, and audience response have given them something broader. They have developed an understanding of attention and how quickly it can shift and how deeply a sensory experience can cement a memory.
For musicians thinking about longevity, there is something critical in that example. Expanding the work does not mean abandoning the path that started it. Sometimes it means recognizing that the craft has been teaching you more than you realized.
Cohol and Kurilic are still making (in the nicest way) people listen. Through The 232 and their expanding creative work, they are also exploring another question: What becomes possible when people begin noticing what all of their senses (not just their eyes and ears) are telling them?
Readers interested in that intersection of music and sensory experience can explore Ella Vatour and listen to Dream 68, and other original compositions, to experience how the pair's musical work is evolving and reaching into the future.
Musicians Today Contributor
This article features partner, contributor, or branded content from a third party. Members of the Musicians Today editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content. All views and opinions are those of the contributor alone.