Charles Amirkhanian, percussion, bells, ocarina, drum synthesizer, voice, harpsichord; Anthony J. Gnazzo, voice; Charlie Morrow, voice, bells
"The title of this album is borrowed from a book by Upton Sinclair, the socialist writer and novelist whose nearly-successful candidacy for governor of the state of California in 1934 took the West Coast establishment by surprise.
"Sinclair’s Mental Radio is a volume of non-fiction on the subject of mental telepathy. The writer had always been fascinated with books on subjects in the realm we now term "parapsychology." He then married a woman who had exhibited what he assured his readers was an indisputable ability to perform telepathic information retrieval. This the book documents in some 239 pages, published by Albert and Charles Boni (New York, 1930).
"Mental Radio remains one of Sinclair’s forgotten volumes, and when I recently encountered it by surprise in a collector’s bookshop I realized that the title, in reference to my forthcoming LP, struck a particular resonance because of my long service in the field of radio broadcasting and because of the interior, close-up qualities of word and voice which make these works particularly suited for radio presentation.
In concert, the pieces are performed live by me with tape accompaniment, and often with slide projections by the visual artist Carol Law. The result is a theatrical environment such as the one seen on the front cover of this album - a performance photograph of Maroa. — Charles Amirkhanian
Charles Amirkhanian (b. 1945) can be regarded as a central figure in American music, and on several fronts. As a composer, he's been pervasively innovative in two genres: text-sound pieces, in which he can draw engaging rhythmic processes from wacky word assemblages such as "rainbow chug bandit" and "church car rubber baby buggy bumper"; and natural-sound electronic pieces which go far beyond the usual confines of musique concrète to create long, poetic sound narratives poised between collage and sonic landscape.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Full liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Charles Amirkhanian: Mental Radio
| MP3/320 | $7.99 | |
| FLAC | $7.99 | |
| WAV | $7.99 | |
| CD-R | $7.99 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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Church Car, Version 2
Charles Amirkhanian
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Dot Bunch
Charles Amirkhanian
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Dog of Stravinsky
Charles Amirkhanian
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Hypothetical Moments
Charles Amirkhanian
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Maroa
Charles Amirkhanian
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The Putts
Charles Amirkhanian
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Dreams Freud Dreamed
Charles Amirkhanian
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Andas
Charles Amirkhanian
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History of Collage
Charles Amirkhanian
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