The Tonearm

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on composer and pianist Midori Hirano.
Born in Kyoto and based in Berlin, Midori is out now with The Juniper Tree, a new score for Nietzchka Keene's 1990 film starring Björk in her first screen role.
We talk about writing without the original soundtrack in her ears, turning field recordings of birds and a waterfall into instruments, and how Pauline Oliveros and the Japanese idea of "ma" led her to strip the music down.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Midori Hirano's The Juniper Tree)
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Dig Deeper
Artist and Album:
Visit Midori Hirano at midorihirano.com and follow on Instagram
Purchase The Juniper Tree from Thrill Jockey or Bandcamp and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
The Film:
The Juniper Tree (The Film Foundation)
Björk's Movie Debut, The Juniper Tree, Is Restored and Revisited (Hyperallergic)
Midori Hirano x The Juniper Tree (Videodroom, Film Fest Gent)
The live soundtrack (midorihirano.com)
People and Places:
Anna Bogutskaya (Time Out)
Pauline Oliveros and the Center for Deep Listening
EMS Elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm
MimiCof, Distant Symphony, made on the SYNTHI 100 at Radio Belgrade (Karlrecords)
Coverage:
Midori Hirano Draws Inspiration from a Classic Icelandic Film (PopMatters)
From The Tonearm:
Inside Brüder Selke & Midori Hirano's Musical Laboratory
Speaking the Word of the Buchla — Suzanne Ciani's Orchestral Wave
Deep Listening, Deep Soil — Lisa Ann Schonberg's Myrmecological Music
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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on saxophonist, composer, and singer Charlotte Greve.
Waterbodies, out now, is her tenth album but the first under her own name. She wrote it while expecting her daughter.
We talk about her love of '80s power ballads, what Shahzad Ismaily brought as producer, and the work deadline driven by childbirth.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Charlotte Greve's Waterbodies)
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Dig Deeper
Artist and Album:
Visit Charlotte Greve at charlottegreve.de and follow on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook
Purchase Waterbodies from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
Live:
Waterbodies and Kaoru Watanabe's The Arch release show, Public Records, Brooklyn, October 14
Coverage:
Charlotte Greve – Membranes (Various Small Flames)
Charlotte Greve, Waterbodies (FEMMUSIC)
People and Places:
Shahzad Ismaily
Seth Manchester and Machines with Magnets (Take Magazine)
Kaoru Watanabe, The Arch (New Amsterdam)
John Hollenbeck (McGill University)
Laura Veirs's Kaleidoscope Creativity Cards (Tape Op)
Oblique Strategies
From The Tonearm:
Caroline Davis: The Saxophone Reimagined in the Fallows
Ghost Notes from Wyoming — Caroline Davis's 'Fallows'
Laura Veirs Alone in the Temple of Bloom
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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
—
Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.
Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on author David Perlis. David grew up in Marin County and co-hosted Night People on WFMU.
His first book, Morning in Marin, is out now. It follows characters including Alan Watts, the Grateful Dead, George Lucas, Philip K. Dick and many others through America's postwar creative boom.
We talk about why he traded fiction for the true story, the letters of Gary Snyder and Alan Watts, and why young artists struggle to find a foothold in Marin today.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Bola Sete's The Kitchen Tapes, Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales's Hooteroll?, and Carlos Santana's Santana Brothers, each featuring a different song called "Morning in Marin")
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Dig Deeper
Author and Book:
Visit David Perlis at daveperlis.substack.com and listen to Night People on WFMU
Purchase Morning in Marin: Zen, Drugs, and Ewoks on the California Coast from Heyday or Bookshop.org
Coverage:
The Long Reach of the "Marinaissance" (KQED Forum)
A new book uncovers Marin's essential role in the counterculture movement (7x7)
Kirkus review
People and Places:
Elsa Gidlow and Druid Heights
Alan Watts
The ferryboat Vallejo
Anna Halprin (Tamalpa Institute)
Gary Snyder Papers (UC Davis Library)
Lew Welch
Elizabeth Terwilliger (Marin History Museum)
Art Clokey and Gumby Dharma
The WELL
The Three "Morning in Marin" Recordings:
Bola Sete, The Kitchen Tapes
Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales, Hooteroll?
Carlos Santana, Santana Brothers
From The Tonearm:
Jorma and Vanessa Kaukonen (Spotlight On)
Jack Casady (Spotlight On)
Grateful Dead, New York, NY, September 20, 1988
Grateful Dead, New York, NY, September 13, 1991
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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
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Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.
Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter, composer, and synthesist Mark Isham. He's out now with At the Carousel Club, his first solo album in fifteen years, built around vintage analog synthesizers and a band that includes Nels Cline, Vinnie Colaiuta, and a string quartet.
We talk about where the album's title comes from, his history with David Sylvian, and what it was like hearing the finished record on vinyl after sixteen hours of sessions.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Mark Isham's At The Carousel Club)
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Dig Deeper
Artist and Album:
Visit Mark Isham at isham.com and follow on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook
Purchase At the Carousel Club from the Mark Isham store, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
The Band:
Nels Cline
Vinnie Colaiuta
Kaveh Rastegar
Ayo Awosika
Orchid Quartet
Wilco
Musical References:
Weather Report, I Sing the Body Electric
Friedrich Gulda
Sonny Sharrock
Bach, Mass in B minor
Film:
Never Cry Wolf (1983), directed by Carroll Ballard
Trumpet Players and Builders:
Doc Severinsen
David Monette
Maynard Ferguson
Arturo Sandoval
Wynton Marsalis
Bay Area:
Cal Tjader
Merl Saunders
Jon Faddis
John Coppola
David Sylvian:
David Sylvian
Brilliant Trees (1984)
Holger Czukay
Kenny Wheeler
Jon Hassell
Jazz Collaborators:
Horace Silver
Charles Lloyd
The Next Generation:
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (Christian Scott)
Keyon Harrold
Theo Croker
From The Tonearm:
Nels Cline: Tales of a Daunted Guitarist (The Tonearm Podcast)
OK Bloomers — Nels Cline Finds His Happy Place
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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.
• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on famed record producer Bob Ezrin.
Bob has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, KISS, Deep Purple, and countless others, though he is best known for his nearly 60-year relationship with Alice Cooper.
He's back working with The Jayhawks on their latest, Sanctuary Park, twenty-six years after their first project together.
We talk about how the reunion started with an offhand remark from Gary Louris, both men leaving the United States for Canada around the same time, and we talk a lot about the craft of record production.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are The Jayhawks - "What Led Me To This Town" and "Mr. Lincoln," Alice Cooper - "I'm Eighteen," and Tim Curry - "Sloe Gin")
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Dig Deeper
Producer:
Bob Ezrin at Primary Wave, and his Governor General's Performing Arts Award citation
Ezrin's production credits on AllMusic
"It started to feel a bit too much like Europe in the 1930s" — Ezrin on leaving Nashville for Toronto, Toronto Life
"My job was to get rid of Alice Cooper, and I did exactly the opposite" — Louder
Ezrin on the producer's "applause meter" — Performing Songwriter
Artist and Album:
Visit the Jayhawks at jayhawksofficial.com and follow on Instagram and Facebook
Purchase the Jayhawks' Sanctuary Park from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
The Jayhawks perform songs from Sanctuary Park in The Current's studio
"Mr. Lincoln" and the Ford's Theatre story behind it — AudioFuzz
Review of Sanctuary Park — Americana Highways
Gary Louris:
Visit Gary Louris at garylourismusic.com
Gary Louris on his Canadian love story — Rolling Stone
The First Time Around:
Smile at twenty — Albumism
Smile credits on Discogs
An interview with Josh Sarubin, the A&R who first sent Ezrin to Minneapolis — The Looking List
Places:
Canterbury Music Co., Toronto, where Sanctuary Park was recorded, and the studio's closing announcement
Musical References:
Alice Cooper at alicecooper.com, and the Killer and School's Out deluxe editions
Kiss celebrate fifty years of Destroyer — uDiscover Music
The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and its history — American Songwriter
Rosalía
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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
—
• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.
• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.