TTTHE DEPARTMENT OF STRANGE WEATHER (Fun N3) 2011
(Live recordings of performances using recorded and appropriated sounds 2008-10)
Working with “found” and “location” sounds recorded by very low-fi means, I improvised performances in real time on a theme of disorientation, suppressed anger and loss. Available at: For this CD please contact me directly:
AT THE OTHER END OF THE DAY (Improvisations 2005-8) (Fun N-1)
Sound works from real life. To me this collection has a dreamy kind of resignation to it, born of listening to quotidian sounds and then willing them into unfamiliarity, accomplished by recording them with a very low-fi device and then further de-fidelifying them w/ simple musique concrete tricks. Hopefully, they are kind of like being in a crowd and pretending you don't understand the language--everything is strange and new again. Special thanks to Guy Orcutt, who inspired these works, and to my family, who put up with me recording and making them.
Available at: For this CD please contact me directly:
CHORAL WORKS & THE APSARAS (Art 1026) Artifact Records (http://www.artifact.com/)
Two works composed from found sounds, ambiances, voices and music:
CHORAL WORKS: (1994-2004)
Short audio-musical pieces based on the sounds of people singing and chanting Made from location recordings of singers in Papua New Guinea, Germany, Japan, Cambodia, Russia, Egypt and Java. Featured on the "AetherFest" radio festival KUNM, 2003.
The APSARAS: (2002)
Eight short audio works based on recordings I made in Cambodia in the mid 1990's. Odd snatches of location recordings are examined for interesting small sound events, from which I tried to fashion "sound melodies". The inspiration for the works were the carvings of the celestial dancers called "Apsaras" found at Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples. The collection was originally made for and premiered on Barbara Golden's KPFA radio show, "Crack of Dawn".
For this CD please contact me directly:
Note that Artifact Records has ended its distribution arrangement with the Electronic Music Foundation (CDe).
EMF no longer has stock of any Artifact titles (in spite of what their website may say), and all Artifact titles are now available only from their composers.
For recordings with THE BIFURCATORS please see The Bifurcators page.
For recordings I did with THE RESIDENTS go to: http://ralphamerica.com/ and scroll down to the old stuff (“Mole Show” etc.).
For recordings by Scott Fraser, “Blue” Gene Tyranny and David Ocker on FUN MUSIC 1979-89 please see the Fun Music page.
PHILIP PERKINS' albums on FUN MUSIC 1975-1994:
(for info on any of these albums, email me at philper@earthlink.net)
VIRGO RAMAYANA and other works for radio: Fun 18 1994
Four works for radio:
Virgo Ramayana: made from music, ambient and voice recordings from Indonesia and arranged via a primitive live computer-controlled
editing and mixing system. (23 min.)
Radio Music: John Cage’s 1956 composition in a studio realization. (6 min.)
Remotitude: an edit of my live radio work BERKELEY REMOTE (KPFA 1989) (6 min.)
Say Again: a live radio work broadcast on KPFA 5/6/91 featuring Bonnie Barnett (voice), Tim Perkis (computer/synth), Scott Fraser (percussion, guitar), and Philip Perkins (mix, radios, signal and MIDI processing, sampler, tapes, electric bass). Produced by Ben Lindgren. (40 min)
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THE REMOTES Fun 17 1990
In 1988 I began a series of live radio performance works called THE REMOTES. In these shows, presented live on various radio stations in the USA and Canada, locally-recruited guest musicians and I would play with and through an electronic system that allowed a unique synthesis of automatic and intuitive processes in a work that continually created itself in real time. This live studio remix (using some of the same systems) of recordings of nine of the live radio versions of the work is a sort of "super Remote", and presents some of the best moments of the series. Later versions were made for NPR, CBC and Japanese radio. Other series spun off of this one were made, including the SURFACE TO AIR series for performance over phone lines to far-away radio stations.
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SHAPIRO, VERMEER, FLORIDA and SAN FRANCISCO Fun 1006 1989
This CD includes 4 works:
Shapiro Songs: settings of 7 poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Karl Shapiro in a variety of styles. Vocalist: Frederick Goff.
re:Vermeer: a five part melodic and electroacoustic work inspired by the paintings of Johannes Vermeer (1632-75).
South Florida Remote: A highly subjective radio documentary on the Miami area. Commissioned by New Music America 1988 and WLRN-FM Miami.
Produced by Steve Malagodi.
San Francisco Remote: This is a documentary recording of this audio installation as it stood in the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery in Oct. 1988. Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Produced by Russ Jennings.
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HALL OF FLOWERS / THE FLAME OF AMBITION (excerpts) Fun 1005 1988
Side 1 of this LP contains the 21 min. first section of HALL OF FLOWERS a work for radio broadcast. The piece moves through a tremendous variety of sound material configured around a single multirhythmic "cell".
Side 2 has 7 excerpts from THE FLAME OF AMBITION , a collection of short, mostly melodic works about what ambition causes (or enables) people to do. The title refers to the "burning" nature of ambition within those who are literally being consumed by it.
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HALL OF FLOWERS Fun 16 1987
This is the full length version of this work for radio. HALL OF FLOWERS was designed so that a listener could tune in at any point, listen for any length of time over a minute or so and get the jist of the piece, while making the hearing of the full length an enjoyable experience also.
THE FLAME OF AMBITION Fun 14 1986
Ambition in these times is particularly visible in the actions of large multi-national corporations, who seem to live by their own laws and politics, while having internal hierarchies as complex as a Renaissance royal court. This varied collection of 14 songs and electroacoustic works reflects on aspects of a consuming desire for power and wealth.
THE ROSETTA STONE Fun 15 1986
Very young children hear language and noise as basically the same phenomena, with occasional "windows" of understanding that widen as the child learns the difference. The Rosetta Stone creates a sonic portrait of this process of discovery through sound composition, melody and location recordings. Side B contains “Horizontal”, a gently melodic ambient work originally commissioned as intermission music for a performance-art piece.
DRIVE TIME: Fun 1004 1985
DRIVE TIME is a series of pieces composed as an alternative to early morning commute or "drive time" radio. The piece alternates melodic songs (often parodies of commercial tunes) with electronic washes and stereo location recordings of street bands, parades, animals, ambiances etc. etc.. The whole is assembled with segues like a live radio show.
KING OF THE WORLD Fun 1003 1984
This album was inspired by the lives and works of three ancient monarchs, all of whom considered themselves to be the absolute ruler of all mankind. The music was made as a meditation on myth, tragedy caused by pride and extreme distance in time.
PACAL (the shield) Fun 13 1983
This work is based on an inference of what the life of this 7th century Mayan king might have been like, based on the art and details of his tomb (Palenque). It follows the chronology of a "noble" life against the sweep and flow of Mayan culture in general. This work is included in the LP KING OF THE WORLD.
NEIGHBORHOOD WITH A SKY (Bird Variations) Fun 1002 1982
This album was conceived of as a "neighborhood" of short, highly evocative audio pieces, similar in size and structure, that would present an audioscape to the listener in much the same way as a neighborhood of buildings and streets presents itself to one walking through it.
APARTMENT LIFE Fun 11 1980
The city as permanent ongoing sound piece. A series of 6 electroacoustic works in which the aural topography of city life is disassembled, examined and finally remade with highly processed mirror images of itself.
TAPEWORKS Fun 12 1975-80 Nine audio works in a variety of styles, from the purely abstract to settings for poetry.
TOOL'S PAINT / READING THE MAIL Fun 1001 (7 inch 45rpm) 1981 One cut each from the APARTMENT LIFE and TAPEWORKS albums.
for info on any of the above albums, e-mail me at philper@earthlink.net