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 10pm every Friday, 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 for a complete list of works played on MfOM up to program 636.
Next Up: Program 642
Saxophones (and strings)
KALW Broadcast: March 5, 2021
Host: Mark Abramson
Host: Mark Abramson
This week, we’ll start with Anthony Braxton – compositions, improvisations, and works that combine the two. We’ll listen to some of the first chapter in Matana Roberts‘ Coin Coin series, a mix of abstract compositional techniques with emotional storytelling. We’ll hear from the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, an album that uses Beethoven‘s String Quartet No. 15 as a frame of reference for commissioned works by new composers. And we’ll end our evening with one last work by Reena Esmail for solo violin.
Previous Programs
Program 642: Conversations with Ellen Arkbro and Max Eilbacher (with guest)
On the next Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb presents a conversation with the Swedish composer and organist Ellen Arkbro recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2019) and a remote interview with Baltimore based electronic musician and bassist Max Eilbacher (of Horse Lords fame).
Tune in to hear all this and more Friday night at 10pm PST on 91.7fm in San Francisco or kalw.org worldwide.
Photo by Marcus Pal, taken 11/21/19 in Huddersfield, UK.
Program 641: Dark Theater
On the next MFOM, two macabre stage works-. Tom Waits & William S Burroughs’ The black rider, and Heinrich Hoffman’s lethal cautionary tales, Shock Headed Peter.
Program 640: New Releases of late '20 and '21
A program featuring new releases of New Music releases from late 2020 and so far in 2021! Tune in to hear works by Ana Roxanne, George Lewis, Ned Rorem, Macie Stewart & Lia Kohl, and more!
Program 639: Southern Exposure
In this program, we spotlight experimental music and sound art from Mexico. The Tecuexe band combines modern electronics and traditional Mexican acoustic instruments. Juanjosé Rivas, Rogelio Sosa, and Israel Martinez, create sound art with field recordings and electronics. And the science/art collective Interspecifics make soundscapes with cyanobacteria and slime mold.
Program 638: Retro Futurism
A forward-looking view from the past: “Music of the Future” including works composed for the 1962 & 1964 Seattle & NewYork World’s Fairs, and Olivier Messiaen’s Fête des belles eaux for the 1937 Paris Exhibition.
Program 637: A Conversation with Henry Birdsey
On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb talks with composer Henry Birdsey about his upcoming Other Minds Release Half-Dragged, a four movement work for just-intonation lap steel. Also on the program, works by Tongue Depressor, Anna von Hasswolff, Rully Shabara, Hildegard Westerkamp, and more.
Program 636: An OM Dance Party
Other Minds celebrates building America back better with a set of music for dancing. But, since this is Other Minds, be ready for anything – changing tempos, funky and unfunky rhythms, and 17/8 time. Featuring music from Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Parliament Funkadelic, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Throbbing Gristle and Robert Ashley (yes, that Robert Ashley).
Program 635: The Past, Revisited
On the next Music from Other Minds, Randall Wong plays Music for Euripides’ The Trojan Women by Eleni Karaindrou, Fellini’s Satyricon by Nino Rota, plus newer works by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Werner Durand.
Program 634: Musical Multitudes
On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays music in the wake of Trump’s failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Tune in to explore the many ways in which music can calm, provoke, transport, and move us in times of great stress.
Program 633: Four Takes on "In C"
Music For Other Minds program 633 presents four fresh takes on Terry Riley’s minimalist work from 1964, “In C.” Zoë Keating’s remix of a version by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble is almost unrecognizable but keeps elements of Riley’s composition intact. Bang on a Can’s recording is much closer to what we might expect to hear in contemporary classical music context. Africa Express recorded a version that features a joyous vibe and African instruments – balafon, calabash, djembe, kalimba, and kora. And the wild version by psychedelic rockers Acid Mother’s Temple doesn’t necessarily play by the rules, but is performed in the spirit with which the work was composed.
