Hear music that was imagined in colors. The featured composers in this episode of New Sounds have synesthesia, a rare neurological phenomenon where two or more of their senses cross wires and connect in an unusual way. While some synesthetes relate numbers to textures or words to tastes, these musicians see colors when hearing music and vice versa. Hear Andy Akiho’s and Michael Torke’s musical interpretations of yellow, Aphex Twin’s blue, Robert Fripp’s red, and a darker crimson from Akiho again. Also included in the episode are works by non-synesthetes — electronica artist Sam KDC with his track titled “Synesthesia,” a jazz power trio named after synesthetic artist Wassily Kandinsky, and Keith Jarrett with his improvisational take on light/dark.
PROGRAM #3564 Synesthesia (First aired on 2/10/2014)
ARTIST(S) | RECORDING | CUT(S) | SOURCE |
Aphex Twin | Selected Ambient Works Volume II | Blue calx, excerpt [7:20] | Warp Records 21 |
Andy Akiho | No One to Know One | Kiiro (Yellow) from Synesthesia Suite [5:10] | Innova 801 |
Michael Torke | Torke: The Yellow Pages | The Yellow Pages [6:50] | Argo Records 430 209-2 |
The Kandinsky Effect | Synesthesia | Left Over Shoes [4:32] | Cuneiform |
Andy Akiho | No One to Know One | Karakurenai, "Rochester Song" (Crimson) from Synesthesia Suite | See above |
King Crimson | Red | Red [6:15] | DGM |
Aphex Twin | Selected Ambient Works Volume II | Blue calx [7:20] | See above |
Sam KDC | Synesthesia | Synesthesia [7:30] | Veil 001 |
Keith Jarrett | Dark Intervals | Opening [12:24] | ECM 1379 |