Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves have the cutest dinosaur music video

Owen Lake is back — the alias of Jeff Snyder, who in these parts is best known for Snyderphonics, MPE innovator and Manta creator (of Princeton University). Here, we get twee-and-western, electro-country tunes with Anica Mrose Rissi that charmingly stick in your head, played partly on instruments Jeff invented, Electrosteel and Electrobass. And there’s a music video with dinos!

In the sound of Wukir Suryadi’s kentongan, a world warning

From Indonesia to the planet, Wukir Suryadi sends a distress call in insistent strikes against his hand-built kentongan instrument. If you want an answer to what music we should be making in this moment, perhaps what you need is Titir — a warning.

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026

Shelâl by Odiv from south Iran opens a portal to local ghosts

Odiv, a young composer from Ahvaz, communes in Shelâl with deeply felt darkness. It’s haunted not as a fetish, not as the pastiche musical surplus equivalent of a costume shop, as piles up in so much “dark” music. But it’s a horror that’s movingly personal. Maybe it’s time for tea and conversation with all our demons and ghosts. Out now on Zabte Sote.

Peter Kirn - October 27, 2025

Boards of Canada played in lightbulbs: restored 1959 PDP-1 performance

Peter Kirn - October 13, 2025

The Blaster Beam, a massive instrument invented by Captain Kirk’s nephew

Peter Kirn - September 17, 2025

Arash Azadi’s music returns to primordial states of human existence

Peter Kirn - November 6, 2024

Tour Superbooth with Afrorack – featuring the show’s best instruments

Peter Kirn - May 22, 2024

Landscape’s Ferrous, an electro-mechanical resonator for strings

Peter Kirn - May 16, 2024

Playing the space of Kraftwerk: Rabon Aibo’s sound art at Atonal

Peter Kirn - September 14, 2023