Some recent short pieces or works of interest... this playlist is subject to change at my whim and whenever I remember the need for momentum.

A Child's Guide to CHANGES TO blind in the 2020's

A piece exploring multiphonics as a foundation for live improvisations with acousmatic and concrete sources.  Performed using Farrago, Loopy Pro, Korg MS2000, SunVox, Turnable, The Grand 3, and a Yamaha VSS30.

Pastiche Of The Hiding Sky

Leveraging a large collection of bird recordings and samples, this piece is a live improvisation recorded in the studio: Clusters of birds, particularly crows, are heard flowing out of a synthetic hole; as one bird emerges it ascends or descends into darkness, surrounded by discouraging and encouraging kin.

Instrumentation is SunVox, Farrago and a Korg MS2000.  Samples and recordings were developed using Cubase.

Falling Out Of The Birdhole

An audio collage from our window at First Hotel in Paris, looking down on the #6 Metro station and the Square Cambronne.  The emphasis is on the sounds of sirens and horns (and some whistles) all captured from our 4th floor window.  For a twist, the ending is taken from under the bridge Pont de Bir-Hakeim near the Eiffel Tower, where two men were playing archaic horns.

All images are from Jorge Mariani, taken from our window.

CTb Retrospeck

Paris Horns for John Cage

Dragging a rattler through an electric eel, the field wide with disruption, feeling our way along.

Fizzlix Whetstone

Ignore the chore of the bunny bouncing
Out each night to hide
And fight the squirrels that ride its back
Bounding through the fields they cheer
Squealing and screaming with delight
The bunny's right to fly and flee
The powershot that they fear
The scream of red running through the weeds
Good cheer
Good fear

What The Bunny Fears The Squirrel

Part of the Transitions series, this piece is based on a live studio improvisation, edited for clarity and purpose, and then perverted with plundered breeze.  Instrumentation includes Farrago, Loopy Pro, SunVox, The Grand 3, Field Recordings, Plundered Sources, Yamaha VSS30, Effects.

Easy Does It

Easy Does It Bingstyle

Dark ambient music for carnal intercourse, self-stimulation, and slumber.

Steamin' (for Levi Erik)

A studio improvisation using samples for an upcoming composition.
hope to exhaustion; exhaustion to hope.

philz-slide whistle, lizard clacker, rotating whoopers, Korg MS2000, Arturia Mellotron V, Farrago, Sunvox, performer

A Prelude To Political Climate

phil zampino-Farrago, Korg MS2000, SunVox, Yahama  VSS-30


Fortrexx is a facet of my work attempting to create an ambient music that is more active than, say, Eno's Music for Airports, but still non-obtrusive; not intended for active listening, but still interesting if you listen actively.  

The paradigm I am searching for is a music or soundwork that could be played in a sexual situation or sexclub that would not distract the participant.  At times one's ears are perked by something subliminal that signals, but it's not melody or motif, just a passing moment to keep the participant from drifting too far away.  

Nuage, not to be noticed, but to fill the space in a way that allows one's own concentration and immersion, but not in utter silence, should there be such a thing on this planet.


I have composed more than seven hours of this indefinitely formed style over the last two years, and this is simply the latest from the day that I write this: October 11, 2023.   That it likely fails in its endeavor is why I will likely make another seven hours, or more.

Siphoning the Park Night (Sexspent)

CHANGES TO blind was asked to perform as part a concert organized by the experimental, interactive, tongue-in-cheek band Dip Lip of John Bridges, Ryan L. Lewis IV & Tim Hughes.  The night was titled "Dip Lip Valentine's Slow Dance & Ball Jamboree".  Carl Kruger and The Paper Skulls also performed.

This concert gave me an opportunity to use the performance system I've been expanding during the last 3 years.  I refer to it as the Transition series, which can be described as live improvisation using an extended sample set on Farrago that includes concrete and acousmatic elements, plus collected samples from a Korg ms2000; also a VSS30 sampler, a touch theremin on SunVox software, and Looper Pro and the original Looper. 

The piece I performed that night (Friday, Feb 9, 2024) was titled "The Maze" and incorporates a series of themes, framed about being ensnared in a 3-dimensional möbius maze where scenes of war, religion, space and swamp are found at various turns of the maze.  These stories were deconstructed from larger studio works that I've improvised or composed. 

The night of the performance the electrical plug that I was using lost power, along with it's nearby peers. I'm used to machine failure, but this was remarkably bad timing.  Dip Lip helped to find an extension, and I reset my sampler with my large metal train whistle, and reset the other devices that had shut themselves off.  Not an auspicious start, but I found my performance zone and was well into the piece when I realized that the loss of power had somehow started my laptop lagging, getting slower and slower and less and less responsive, a new behavior it chose to introduce me to "live".  When it finally refused to play the last sample I was forced to force quite and restart it mid-performance.  Again, machines, failure... 

In all I played for 19 minutes, 5 minutes short by my standard, but the piece was well received by an audience that really seemed to listen.

Instead of sharing that night's performance, I give you the best of the rehearsals, recorded two nights before the show.  Technicalities and machine drama aside, I hope you enjoy this journey inside CTb's maze.

The Maze (for Dip Lip)

I was invited to be one of the opening acts at the local alternate performance space Barzarre here in Wilmington, NC, for Ironing, the Florida experimental vinyl musician.  This was the second time I opened for Andrew, whose set I really loved the first time I saw him: clever, upbeat, funny and serious genre smashing from an irrepresible performer.  And a sweet guy!

The piece I had in mind when first asked was born from a comprovisational sound poetry piece I was working on at the time, "Idea Deepfield Lost", which deals with the repression of fresh ideas and change, and the push to return to some "greater times".  Opening for Ironing played into my theme, and I found a vintage commercial and manipulated its narrative to bookmark the piece.  The other components were either generated from the aforementioned track, or from my collection of samples.  For the live performance I created several new samples that fit the story I was building.

Typically I bring 3 or more instruments for a performance, and often a mic and hand-held instruments.  Short on time in the midst of some Squidco activity, I developed the track using only Farrago, the MacOS sample application from Rogue Amoeba.  The components, particularly the harmonic and dissonant sound beds, were generated from samples I recorded in the iPad Looper application.

Ironing Societal Anxiety

A direct mix of a live quartet improvisation on this spooky night, Halloween 2024


philz - Korg MS2000, VSS30, Sunvox, Farrago, Loopy Pro

Halloween 2024

Squidco's experimental sound series in Wilmington, NC returned on January 30, 2025.  This is my final studio rehearsal the night before the performance.

The piece is a reflection on a peaceful life versus the circus we find ourselves in socially and politically.  Disruptions are juxtaposed to the beauty of nature over a template of circular events and harmonics that pervade our daily life.


Elements include Farrago, Loopy Pro, SunVox and a VSS 30.  Acoustic instruments include bells, bird calls, a (red) balloon, a tone bar, and a shaker.

Sonics 20250129

This was a piece I developed for an Abstract Art Celebration in Wilmington, NC, at Jengo's Playhouse on May 3, 2025.  The celebration presented live painting, underground films, and two sound performances, one of which was this piece.  The themes of my compositions bridge water, essential for life, and war, which only takes life away.  This recording was made in the studio live to two track with no edits, the last rehearsal before the live performance.

Abstract - Water to War

Swaggart's Pinpricks

CHANGES TO blind is Phil Zampino, aka philz squid, aka Me.  I've been creating unusual music since the early 1980s, and I haven't stopped yet.

CHANGES TO blind

Pinned to spotlight

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