Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist working with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real time to create dense, complex sonic layers. Her works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, sampled sounds, and custom MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound and image with physical gestures. At this year’s Other Minds Festival, Z will perform her piece Simultaneous, an intermedia composition for voice, electronic processing, chamber ensemble, speech samples, gesture control, and projected video. In conjunction with the performance, Other Minds records will release a fixed media version of Simultaneous on LP and CD. In the interview, we talk about Z’s interest in simultaneous translation, finding music in speech, and her use of gesture control instruments.Music: Simultaneous by Pamela Z, performed by Pamela Z, Kyle Bruckmann, Charlton Lee, Clara Kennedy, and Kjell Nordeson live at MoMA; Simultaneous by Pamela Z (Other Minds Records)Follow Pamela Z on Instagram.pamelaz.comFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Choreographer Nancy Karp grew up in Los Angeles, where she was an early student at CalArts. She embraces elaborate structures working with units of pure movement, investigating their potential through combination and variation. From these “structural investigations” emerge patterns and phrases that become her dances. In 1980, she founded her dance company, Nancy Karp + Dancers. On Night 3 of this year’s Other Minds Festival, Karp will premiere a new piece set to James Tenney’s Three Pieces for Drum Quartet. On the podcast, we talk about Karp’s education at CalArts, collaborating with composers, and choreographing her new piece.Music: WAKE for Charles Ives and CYSTAL CANON for Edgard Varèse from Three Pieces for Drum Quartet by James Tenney, performed by Maelström Percussion Ensemble and Jan Williams (hat[now]ART)Follow Nancy Karp on Instagram and Facebook.nancykarp.orgFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Other Minds’s own Devin King joins us to read an excerpt from our first ever OM book, Peter Garland’s Ingram Marshall: A Personal and Musical Appreciation. Born in 1952 in Portland, Maine, Peter Garland was one of the original students at CalArts in 1970, where his principal teachers were Harold Budd and James Tenney. From 1971 to 1991 he edited and published Soundings magazine and press, where he printed the work of four generations of mostly American composers. As an editor and essayist he played a pivotal role in the rediscovery and re-evaluation of such composers as Conlon Nancarrow, Silvestre Revueltas, Lou Harrison, Paul Bowles, Dane Rudhyar, Harry Partch, and James Tenney. King gives us a first look at what’s in store.Music: Rave by Ingram Marshall (New Albion); Dark Waters by Ingram Marshall, performed by Libby Van Cleve (New Albion); Hymnodic Delays – Low Dutch by Ingram Marshall, performed by Theatre of Voices (Nonesuch)Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.This episode of the Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian and Devin King. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Electroacoustic composer, improviser, and harpist Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices, making use of extended techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing. In her compositions, Parkins utilizes collections, recombination, historic proximities, geography, and movement. On Night 3 of this year’s Other Minds Festival, Parkins will perform her new work Modesty of the Magic Thing with percussionist William Winant. On the podcast, we talk about Parkins’ early experiments with the harp, electrifying the instrument, and her new work inspired by the drawings of the American visual artist Jay DeFeo.Music: “Pink Cup by Day,” “The Very Tissue of Falling Columns,” “Pink Cup by Night,” “Figure to Figure,” and “Larkspur” from Modesty of the Magic Thing by Zeena Parkins, performed by Zeena Parkins and William Winant (Tzadik)Follow Zeena Parkins on Instagram.zeenaparkins.comFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Putu Septa is a composer and musician from the village of Padangtegal, Ubud, Bali. To contribute to new music on Balinese gamelan, Septa initiated a new gamelan ensemble–Nata Swara–which performs with, among others, Gamelan Sada Sancaya, an orchestra of extended range bronze instruments designed by Septa, and Kendang Briuk, an instrument set consisting of a varied collection of Balinese kendang drums. On the final day of this year’s Other Minds Festival, Septa, along with fellow Nata Swara member I Kadek Janurangga, will perform with ZOFO, the Bay Area piano duo of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi, and Brian Baumbusch. The supergroup will perform music by Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti, Brian Baumbusch, Colin McPhee, and Septa himself. Septa also has a new CD out on Other Minds Records in September called Piwal.Music: Live performance with electronics by Putu Septa; KoSo by Putu Septa, performed by ZOFO; Piwal by Putu Septa, performed by Nata Swara (Other Minds Records)Follow Putu Septa on Instagram.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Kristine Tjøgersen’s compositional practice is characterized by curiosity, imagination, humor, and precision. She has a special interest in the interplay between the visual and the auditory as well as the natural world. Her collaboration with researchers and biologists is a source of new sound and scenic ideas, incorporating organic forms into the music. On Night 3 of this year’s Other Minds Festival, pianist Ellen Ugelvik and lighting designer Evelina Dembacke will perform Tjøgersen’s Piano Piece. On the podcast, we talk about collaborating with biologists, creating a forest inside a piano, and much more!Music: Lying on forest floor, looking at treetops by Kristine Tjøgersen (Aurora Records); “Moth Molecules” from Night Lives by Kristine Tjøgersen, performed by Cikada Ensemble (Aurora Records); “Myotis” from Night Lives by Kristine Tjøgersen, performed by Cikada Ensemble (Aurora Records); Piano Piece by Kristine Tjøgersen, performed by Ellen Ugelvik; “Bat Club” from Night Lives by Kristine Tjøgersen, performed by Cikada Ensemble (Aurora Records); Starry Night by Kristine Tjøgersen, performed by Tøyen Fil og Klafferi with Marcus Weiss and Jenny Hval (Aurora Records)Follow Kristine Tjøgersen on Instagram.kristinetjogersen.noFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Samuel Adams (b. 1985) is an American composer. Gramophone Magazine praised Adams as “among the most interesting composers of the millennial generation in his negotiation of the tensions that shape and define his musical narratives: between directness and implication, silence and resonance, emotion and its aftermath.” His work resists the traditional tensions of classical music, blending acoustic and digital sounds in inventive, texturally rich compositions. He has been commissioned by a number of major ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and The Living Earth Show. On the podcast, Adams talks about growing up in the Bay Area, working with the San Francisco Symphony, and the influence of composer Ingram Marshall on his life and work.Music: Études by Samuel Adams, performed by Conor Hanick; Violin Diptych by Samuel Adams, performed by Karen Gomyo and Conor Hanick (Other Minds Records); Shade Studies by Samuel Adams, performed by Sarah Cahill (Irritable Hedgehog)Follow Samuel Adams on Instagram.samuelcarladams.comFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE: On Sunday, September 7, 2025, Other Minds will present a two piano recital of the music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley with pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. Robert Ashley and “Blue” Gene Tyranny were both iconic and beloved teachers at the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship. In preparation for the concert, we’re sharing excerpts from interviews with the two composers from the Other Minds Archives.Music: That Morning Thing by Robert Ashley (Other Minds Archives)Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
We have another special episode for our subscribers, a recording of the pre-concert talk by musicologist Simon Morrison at our concert of the complete piano sonatas of 20th century Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, performed by Conor Hanick. Born in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1919, Galina Ustvolskaya’s expressive and vigorous music was deemed problematic in the USSR early in her career and did not receive widespread attention in her home country until the 1960s and 70s, and abroad only in the late 1980s. She taught at the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music from 1947-1977 and over the past three decades her music has experienced an increasing amount of performances and acclaim in the West.Simon Morrison is a Professor of Music at Princeton University specializing in 20th-century Russian and Soviet music. In the recording, you’ll hear Morrison discuss Ustvolskaya’s life, her relationships with her contemporaries, and her six piano sonatas, composed between 1947 and 1988. After the episode, head over to otherminds.org, where you can watch a video of Conor Hanick’s performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s piano sonatas at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California.Music: Excerpts from Piano Sonatas 1–6 by Galina Ustvolskaya, performed by Conor HanickClick here to watch Conor Hanicks’s performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonatas 1–6 at Other Minds.simonamorrison.comconorhanick.comFollow us on Instagram and Facebook.otherminds.orgContact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian.
A Year of Deep Listening was a 365-day online celebration of Pauline Oliveros’ legacy, coinciding with what would have been her 90th birthday. The Center for Deep Listening, established at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2014, posted one text score per day, totaling 365 pieces, which will be published in book form on January 28, 2025, as A Year of Deep Listening: 365 Text Scores for Pauline Oliveros. On the podcast, Joseph Bohigian is joined by Stephanie Loveless, a sound and media artist, Director of the Center for Deep Listening, and the editor of this new volume, to talk about the project. Music: Roles of a Machine by Hassan Estakhrian, performed by Extradition (Maxx Katz, flute; Annie Gilbert, trombone; Collin Oldham, cello); Shao Way Wu, bass; Sam Klapper, violin; Caspar Sonnet, dobro; Ben Cohen-Chen, soprano saxophone; Matt Hannafin, percussion), No Small Matter by Seth Cluett, performed by Extradition (Juniana Lanning, Catherine Lee, Annie Gilbert, Loren Chasse, Matt Hannafin, natural objects), Water, Wood, Stone, Breath by Grace Harper, performed by Extradition (Stephanie Lavon Trotter, book, words; Juniana Lanning, cups, water; Loren Chasse, basket, pebbles) A Year of Deep Listening Follow Stephanie Loveless on Instagram. Follow The Center for Deep Listening on Instagram and Facebook. stephanieloveless.ca deeplistening.rpi.edu Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Thea Farhadian is a composer and violinist who creates multi-textured sound worlds which employ an array of elements drawn from her engagement with Western classical music, performance art, Arabic classical music, and live electronic processing. She collaborates with a network of Bay Area, East Coast, and international colleagues and her work has been seen and heard at Galerie Mario Mazzoli in Berlin, the Aram Khachaturian Museum in Yerevan, and Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Today, Other Minds Records releases Farhadian’s newest album, Tattoos and Other Markings, an electronic composition exploring cultural memory and the urge to remember difficult histories. Music: “Mokats Mirza,” “There was and there was not,” and “Eulogy” from Tattoos and Other Markings by Thea Farhadian (Other Minds Records) Follow Thea on Instagram. theafarhadian.com Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Trimpin is a sound sculptor, composer, engineer, and inventor. A specialist in interfacing computers with traditional instruments, he has developed ways of playing instruments ranging from giant marimbas to stacks of electric guitars via computer. His work integrates sculpture, sound, and live performance. Born in Germany, Trimpin spent several years living and studying in Berlin, working as a set designer and collaborating with artists from both Germany and the United States. He relocated to the United States in 1979. This year’s Other Minds Festival features the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Trimpin, The Cello Quartet. It features autonomous cellos, circus artists, percussive lamp shades, and more. In the interview, Joseph Bohigian talks with Trimpin about his custom-built cellos, collaborating with choreographer Margaret Fisher, and the influence of spatial music composer Henry Brant. Music: Contraption No. 1 by Conlon Nancarrow performed by Trimpin, computer-controlled piano (Other Minds Festival 1) Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
IMA is the electro-percussion project of electronic sound artist Amma Ateria and percussionist Nava Dunkelman. The duo has been presented in residency at The Stone, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, San Francisco Art Institute, and Stanford University and collaborated with Ikue Mori, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Matmos, and many others. IMA will perform The Flowers Die in Burning Fire on the final night of this year’s Other Minds Festival on September 28, 2024. In the interview, we talk about the duo’s early collaborations, perception of time in music, and the influence of Japanese poetry. Music: “Meshes of the Afternoon” from The Flowers Die in Burning Fire by IMA (Buh Records); “Notion of Time” from The Flowers Die in Burning Fire by IMA (Buh Records); “Ende” from The Flowers Die in Burning Fire by IMA (Buh Records) Follow IMA on Facebook and Instagram. imanoise.me Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Jan Martin Smørdal is a Norwegian composer and performer of contemporary music. With a background in experimental bands and improvisation, he writes music often inspired by social phenomena: imitation and mimicry; swarms, flocks, and other collective behaviors; memory; and the unevenness inherent to being human. His music has been performed at festivals such as Ultima, ISCM, MATA, and Borealis and released on the labels LAWO, SOFA, and Aurora. Smørdal is also a co-founder and member of Ensemble neoN, an Oslo-based contemporary music collective. His piece Both sides. Now will be performed by Yarn/Wire at Other Minds Festival 28 on September 27, 2024, at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. Music: My Favorite Thing 1 by Jan Martin Smørdal, performed by Pinquins (LAWO Classics); My Favorite Thing 3 “...something about a bird” by Jan Martin Smørdal, performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and conductor Kai Grinde Myrann (LAWO Classics); Kraftbalanse by Jan Martin Smørdal and Øystein Wyller Odden, performed by Vilde Sandve Alnæs, Miriam Bergset, Ragnhild Lien, Julija Morgan, Torunn Blåsmo-Falnes, Tove Bagge, Sverre Kyvik Bauge, and Inga Margrete Aas (Sofa Music); Both sides. Now by Jan Martin Smørdal, performed by Trond Schau, Helge Kjekshus, Andre Fjørtoft, and Åsmund Moen Follow Jan Martin on Instagram. smordal.no Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Marshall Trammell is an experimental archivist, percussionist, conductor, and composer. His aesthetics and activism are centered in social change interventions using political aesthetic theory, data creation, mapping, and collective music-and-artmaking in order to relocate the act of co-production from traditional cultural institutions into communities. Hafez Modirzadeh is a saxophonist, composer, and theorist whose music and research focuses on cross-cultural approaches. His research has been published in journals including Music in China, Black Music Research, Leonardo, and Critical Studies in Improvisation. Trammell and Modirzadeh will perform We Say NO To Genocide on the final night of Other Minds Festival 28, Saturday, September 28, 2024. In the interview, we discuss the pair’s history of collaboration, Trammell’s Music Research Strategies, and Modirzadeh’s cross-cultural approach to music. Music: David Boyce, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Marshall Trammell live at Bird & Beckett Books & Records Follow Hafez on Facebook. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Brian Baumbusch is a composer, instrument designer, and musicologist whose works engage the use of new technologies while also drawing on deep cross-cultural histories. His Polytempo Music, performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, is being issued in three different formats simultaneously: as a compact disc on Other Minds Records, as a virtual reality application for the Meta Quest headset, and as a mobile app for both Apple and Android users. Today, we’re bringing you an interview with Baumbusch about Polytempo Music conducted by Other Minds board member Bari Scott live at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California on June 28, 2024. Music: “Hex Tree” and “Pas de deux” from Polytempo Music by Brian Baumbusch, performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (Other Minds Records) Follow Brian on Instagram. brianbaumbusch.com Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Annea Lockwood’s compositions range from sound art and environmental sound installations to concert music. Water has been a recurring focus of her work and her three installation sound maps of rivers: the Hudson River, the Danube, and the Housatonic River have been widely presented. She is a recipient of the SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2022. In the interview, we discuss two of her recent works which will be performed at the Other Minds Festival: Becoming Air, co-composed with Nate Wooley and Into the Vanishing Point, co-composed with Yarn/Wire. Also covered are Lockwood’s practice of making sound maps and her upcoming project with Wooley sound mapping the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Music: Becoming Air by Annea Lockwood and Nate Wooley, performed by Nate Wooley (Black Truffle); On Fractured Ground by Annea Lockwood and Yarn/Wire, performed by Yarn/Wire (Black Truffle) annealockwood.com Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Karen Power is a composer from Cork, Ireland whose work spans orchestral music, sound installation, music for dance and experimental film, and free improvisation. Since 2012, much of her work has been concerned with the use of field recordings and ambient sounds. Power has a new album with Quiet Music Ensemble out now on Other Minds Records, …we return to ground…, which surveys her field recording compositions written between 2015 and 2022. In the interview, we talk about field recordings, dialogue between natural sounds and human performers, and Power’s “aural scores.” Music: instruments of ice by Karen Power, performed by Quiet Music Ensemble (Other Minds Records); sonic pollinators by Karen Power, performed by Quiet Music Ensemble (Other Minds Records); …we return to ground… by Karen Power, performed by Quiet Music Ensemble (Other Minds Records) Follow Karen on Instagram. karenpower.ie Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Adam Tendler is a New York-based pianist and author. A pioneer of DIY culture in concert music, in his early twenties Adam performed in all fifty states as part of a grassroots recital tour he called America 88x50, which became the subject of his memoir, 88x50. After his father’s unexpected death in 2019, he used his inheritance to commission a group of composers including Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, and Pamela Z to create new piano works exploring the idea of 'inheritance.' On July 17, 2024, Other Minds will present the Bay Area premiere of Tendler’s Inheritances at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. In the interview, we talk about the origins of Inheritances, looking back at one’s own past, and the unexpected turns the project has taken. Music: Morning Piece by Devonté Hynes, Outsider Song by Scott Wollschleger, Remember, I Created You by Laurie Anderson, Morning Piece by Devonté Hynes, Thank You So Much by Pamela Z; performed by Adam Tendler (New Amsterdam Records) Follow Adam on Facebook and Instagram. adamtendler.com Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).
Giacomo Fiore is a guitarist and musicologist and has premiered more than two dozen works for justly-tuned, electric, and classical guitars. As a scholar, his research focuses on American experimental music, intonation, and performance, and he teaches historical and practical music courses at the University of San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz. In the interview, we discuss Fiore’s new album Lost Horse Wash Drone, released by Other Minds Records. The album features field recordings from Joshua Tree National Park and the nearby Lou Harrison House, alongside Fiore’s guitar playing. This interview was recorded before the death of Larry Polansky, Giacomo Fiore’s mentor, in May 2024. Music: Morning by Giacomo Fiore (Other Minds Records); ii - v - i by Larry Polansky, performed by Larry Polansky and Giacomo Fiore at Other Minds Festival 21; Pine City Air by Giacomo Fiore (Other Minds Records); Lost Horse Wash Drone by Giacomo Fiore (Other Minds Records); Night by Giacomo Fiore (Other Minds Records) Follow Giacomo on Instagram. giacomofiore.com Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. otherminds.org Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org. The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).