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 Hanick

Click here to watch Conor Hanicks’s performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonatas 1–6 at Other Minds.

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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

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).