Music From Other Minds

Composer Mauricio Kagel is difficult to categorize. Although associated with the European avant-garde of the 1960s and 70s, his music is often humorous and theatrical, using invented instruments and absurdist staging. He made films and radio plays. He seems irreverent, but has a deep knowledge of and respect for the European classical tradition. In this program, we’ll sample Kagel’s chamber music with Serenade and Die Stücke der Windrose; his film music for MM 51 and Un Chien Andalou; his Hörspiels Playback Play and Nah und Fern; and from the Other Minds Archives, you’ll hear Kagel in conversation with Charles Amirkhanian from his 1988 appearance at Speaking of Music.

Monday, July 29, 2024, is the 85th birthday of the renowned composer and friend of Other Minds Annea Lockwood. Born July 29, 1939 in Christchurch, New Zealand, Lockwood’s compositions range from sound art and environmental sound installations to concert music. Lockwood will be visiting San Francisco for Other Minds Festival 28, September 25–28, 2024, at the Brava Theater for performances of her musical collaborations with trumpeter Nate Wooley, Yarn/Wire, and pianist Sarah Cahill. On this program, we celebrate Lockwood’s work in honor of her birthday with a range of her music and interviews over the years.

Listen closely! This week Music from Other Minds features a blend of music and natural sound, highlighted by a new release from Irish composer Karen Power and Quiet Music Ensemble. Using field recordings as an “aural score,” Power’s collaboration with QME creates a dialogue between musicians and nature, and invites listeners to immerse themselves in unique sonic ecosystems, offering time and space for individual interpretation and exploration.

The program also includes music played on penguin bones by Cheryl Leonard, music based on field recordings by Andrew Weathers and Christopher Luna-Mega, a melting glacier in Alaska by Matthew Burtner, and music with frogs by Wendy Reid.

This program features a series of archival rebroadcasts of the composers John Cage and Morton Feldman in conversation. Cage and Feldman recorded four open-ended discussions at the studios of radio station WBAI in New York. These meetings spanned six months between July 1966 and January 1967 and were produced as five “Radio Happenings.” These conversations between two old friends, relaxed, smoking, and throwing out ideas, are full of laughter and long ponderous silences. They form an incredible historical record of their concerns and preoccupation with making music, art, society, and politics of the moment.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays three very different artists who cite John Cage as major influences on their music. We’ll hear Jürg Frey‘s evening length work for string quartet and saxophone quartet Continuité, fragilité, résonance, selections by the Vienna-based Vegetable Orchestra, and Steve Roden‘s stars of ice.

This program features music inspired by natural forces: the wind, quantum physics, and the sounds of the natural world. Christopher Cerrone’s Beaufort Scales channels varied levels of wind intensity, while Cheryl E. Leonard’s Greater than 20 Knots captures the power of Antarctic winds. Field recordings duet with human performers in Giacomo Fiore’s Lost Horse Wash Drone, recorded at Joshua Tree National Park, and Karen Power’s loved bees and Amazonian frogs with recordings from Ireland and Peru. Closing the program is Waves and Particles by John Luther Adams, a piece inspired by quantum physics, fractal geometry, and noise.

This program features two new releases from Other Minds Records: an improvised set by bass player Joëlle Léandre and vocalist Lauren Newton performed during Other Minds Festival 26, and Giacomo Fiore’s guitar exploration of just intonation and desert resonance recorded at the Lou Harrison House near Joshua Tree National Park. Plus music for chamber orchestra by Liza Lim, Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik play music by Earle Brown and Toshi Ichiyanagi, a cello and electronics improvisation by Joana Guerra, Miroslav Beinhauer plays music for Alois Hába’s sixth-tone harmonium written by Judith Berkson, and John Schneider plays music by Lou Harrison arranged for just intonation guitar.

On this Music from Other Minds, an archival broadcast of Charles Amirkhanian and Elliott Carter‘s 1983 on-stage discussion as a part of the “Speaking of Music” lecture series. At the time of this broadcast, Carter (1908-2012) was celebrating his 75th birthday! Tune in to hear the two composers discuss the musical developments of the early 20th century, Carter’s friendships with Ives, and much more.

On this program, we’re walking across Europe from Norway to Romania, listening to the composers whose paths we cross on our cross-continental journey. Included is music by Jan Martin Smørdal, Anders Hillborg, Simon Steen-Andersen, Hanna Hartman, Calliope Tsoupaki, Karel Goeyvaerts, Joëlle Léandre and Lauren Newton, Giacinto Scelsi, Beat Furrer, György Kurtág, and Doina Rotaru.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays new releases by Anqi Liu, Daniel Lentz, Amina Claudine Meyers and Wadada Leo Smith, and Olivia Block. Also on the program, a tribute to the late Larry Polansky (1954-2024).