Music From Other Minds

Charles Amirkhanian pays homage to visionary violinist Anahid Ajemian (January 26, 1924–June 13, 2016) in celebration this week of the 100th anniversary of her birth in New York City. Ajemian, and her older sister, pianist Maro Ajemian, were early advocates of the music of maverick composers John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, and Lou Harrison. They went on to record dozens of LPs in the 1950s for MGM Records featuring then-little-known contemporary music, some of which is heard here by composers Wallingford Riegger, Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Chavez, and others. Included are rare recordings of the 1942 American premiere of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto, a 1947 V-Disc of Debussy’s Violin Sonata, and a 1948 RCA Victor 78rpm side of Khachaturian’s Chant-Poéme. The broadcast coincides with the launch this week of the new Other Minds Archives website.

This program features interviews and music from the new Other Minds Archives, which will be available for free public access on January 26, 2024. Included are excerpts of interviews and music by Laurie Anderson, Jim Nollman, Tom Marioni, Terry Riley, and Charles Amirkhanian‘s 1981 RadioVisions program “The New Consonance.”

This program features interviews and music from the new Other Minds Archives, which will be available for free public access on January 26, 2024. Included are excerpts of interviews and music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Henry Cowell, Pauline Oliveros, Nicolas Slonimsky, Mari Kimura, Tony Gnazzo, Pamela Z, and Sheila Davies.

Although a certain rock producer turned murderer is often credited with creating the “Wall of Sound,” those efforts are feeble compared to tonight’s program. This music is not necessarily loud or abrasive, but dense, impenetrable. Works by George Antheil, Brian Baumbusch, Henry Threadgill, Harry Bertoia, Conlon Nancarrow, Pauline Oliveros, Phill Niblock, Julia Wolfe, Tony Conrad, Iannis Xenakis, and the mysterious New Zealand artist sometimes known as WITCYST.

We’re going to try something different for this New Year’s Eve 2023. Usually our focus is on experimental music from a contemporary classical perspective. But tonight we’ll listen to experiments with blues-based music. This means we’ll be playing some jazz—Don Cherry, Jamie Branch. We’ll also hear from experimental guitarists like James Blood Ulmer and Elliott Sharp. And we’ll play some old acoustic blues by Robert Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays experimental songs by John Oswald and Jacqueline Humbert / David Rosenboom, clay instrument improvisations by Sonic Mud, and a live performance from Other Minds Festival 27 by Craig Taborn.

This program features recently released music from Other Minds Records by Thollem/Terry Riley/Nels Cline, Samuel Adams, Tom Bickley, Senso di Voce and Henry Birdsey, and Joseph Bohigian, as well as a sneak preview of what’s in store for the label in 2024 with music by Karen Power, Joëlle Léandre and Lauren Newton, and Thea Farhadian.

This week on Music from Other Minds, three generations of Armenian American composers. The Water Has Found its Crack, a new album by Joseph Bohigian, includes three pieces composed while living in Armenia. Rerooted is for string quartet and voices speaking of tragedy and survival: people whose ancestors fled the 1915 genocide and settled in Syria, now fleeing the civil war there and returning to Armenia. Charles Amirkhanian visited Armenia in 1994 (then newly-independent from the former Soviet Union) with his father. He recorded music, interviews, and soundscapes and used those recordings to make Miatsoom (Reunion), an audio journal and homage to his Armenian heritage. Alan Hovhaness is the best known and most prolific of Armenian American composers, having written over 500 pieces of music, including 67 symphonies. His music combines Asian and Armenian influences with a mystical reverence of nature. We’ll hear samples of his symphonic and piano music.

This program by special guest host Zachary James Watkins features music by living composers who are also performers. From Watkins: “I believe this combination can yield engaged and intimate musical inventions. This is the first volume of what I hope to be a series featuring new music by artists who inspire.” Included are selections from Madison Greenstone’s album Resonance Studies in Ecstatic Consciousness, Lori Goldston and Torben Ulrich’s album Oakland Moments, and Laura Ortman’s album Smoke Rings Shimmers Endless Blur.

Much of Neil Rolnick’s music employs computer with live performance. We’ll hear two examples: Oceans Eat Cities uses data projecting rising sea levels with string quartet; and Lockdown Fantasies for computer and piano, which will be performed at the upcoming Other Minds Festival. Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick will also perform at the Festival. This program features the early classic A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur and an example of Subotnick’s “ghost electronics” accompanying the Juilliard String Quartet. It’s been 60 years since Don Buchla designed his first electronic music modules for the San Francisco Tape Music Center. A tribute to Buchla’s genius features music by Suzanne Ciani, Todd Barton, Laura Naukkarinen, and Sarah Belle-Reid. The program concludes with a short digestif with the hurdy-gurdy/percussion duo of Matthia Loibner and Lucas Niggli.