Since January 2005, Music From Other Minds has presented new and unusual music by innovative composers and performers from around the world. Produced weekly for KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco by Charles Amirkhanian and the Other Minds staff, and aired at 8pm every Sunday, Music From Other Minds aims to open up radio listeners to experimental classical work by living and recent composers. We bring you the latest in contemporary music from around the world, and some glimpses into the past, to give a context for today’s music.
Follow this link for information and track listings from programs prior to program 501.
Follow this link to download a complete list of works played on MFOM up to program 702.
Previous Programs
Program 535: Halloween Edition
On this Music from Other Minds, Randall Wong delivers some spooky sounds to your ears for our Halloween edition. The program features George Antheil’s score for the 1955 film, Dementia, directed by John Parker. Variety Magazine described Dementia as “maybe the strangest film ever offered for theatrical release.”
Program 534: Equal Tuning Microtonal Music
On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb explores the otherworldly sounds of equal tuning microtonal music. Join us as we explore the alien world of equal tuning microtonal music through the works of Ezra Sims, Alois Hába, and Easely Blackwood.
Program 533: Lost and Found Sounds
On the this Music from Other Minds, Randall Wong presents an evening of works created from found acoustic sounds, by Michael Tanner and Phillip Bimstein. Michael Tanner is a composer, writer and musician from the south of England occasionally recording under the pseudonym Plinth. On this program, we will hear a set of Tanner’s sound collages from the album Collected Machine Music.
Program 532: Almost Ambient
On this Music from Other Minds, Mark Abramson presents music that sits on the border between ambient and avant-garde. The show features early electronic work for ondes Martenot by Olivier Messiaen, an electroacoustic piece by David Berhman, and a 2018 release for alto-saxophone by Lea Bertucci. Much of the program is from the Ellipsis Arts three disk set OHM+ The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music, 1948-1980.
Program 531: Concrète, Electronic, and Non-Commercial Rock
On this Music from Other Minds, Mark Abramson presents a quirky mix of mid-century tape and electronic music. From Pierre Schaeffer to John Cage to Patti Smith, this program explores the many ways that musicians chose to use early electronic processes to expand the sonic possibilities of their work.
Program 530: Beth Anderson’s “Ode” and Other Selections
On this Music from Other Minds, Beth Anderson’s Ode, a tape piece composed of auctioneer recordings from a Kentucky tobacco warehouse recorded by Anderson in 1972. Also on the program, Sarah Hennies‘ Falsetto, three works from Angus MacLise’s album Brain Damage in Oklahoma City, and Tim Feeney’s work 18:55 for solo percussion.
Beth Anderson’s Ode was created and mixed at the Queen’s College and Wesleyan electronic music studios in 1975.
Program 529: Henry Brant
On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb presents: the music of Henry Brant. This program features many of Brant’s lesser known works, including his spatial piano concerto Inside Track and his Jazz Clarinet Concerto, which was written for (but never performed by), Benny Goodman.
Program 528: Music By and For Elephants
On this Music from Other Minds, Randall Wong explores music written for and by elephants. It has been noted since ancient times that elephants seem to have an affinity for music. In 1957, German evolutionary biologist Bernard Rensch writes in Scientific American that he found elephants can distinguish at least 12 scale tones and remember simple melodies, even when played on different instruments at various pitches, timbres, and meters.
Program 527: Radio Art
On this Music from Other Minds, Andrew Weathers presents: Radio Art.
In honor of her 90th birthday this year, the program will feature the work Partial Perceptions by the American sound artist and writer Helen Thorington. She is the founder of the non-profit New Radio and Performing Arts, which is an organization that commissions and archives new and experimental radio art, sound art, net art, and mixed reality works.
Program 526: Music for the Gift and Other Selections
On this Music from Other Minds, Mark Abramson presents: Terry Riley’s Music for the Gift and other Classical/Jazz crossover works. In 1963, Terry Riley recorded the Chet Baker Quartet in a Paris studio with the intention of using the raw recordings to create an electro-acoustic work. He created a tape looping process he called the “time lag accumulator” and used it to create the five movement work, Music for the Gift.