Part of the Transitions series, improvised live then edited, augmented and generally composed.  A strange sally through the shortwaves, with a message of abstract hope.

Connect Daddy Foxtrot, Connect With Them

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

Layered improvisations using Loopy Pro(first pass), Farrago & Sunvox (second pass),  and a Korg MS2000 (final pass).  Each pass as performed.  

Originally intended as a study for a new work using components from the Transitions sample collection, but instead an assertive set of samples took charge and forced my sonic hand.  

Or foot.

Up Wait Want 20230607

This track started with a piano improvisation on a rainy afternoon.  Having a collection of weather samples I wanted to create a longer "rain-like" component that I could use in live settings.  I mapped the piano work to a series of new samples and effects to create a bubbling electronic platform, like raindrops on circuit board.  I added that to my sample set and improvised this piece, using actual field recordings of rainy weather, a recording of a thunder percussion instrument (thanks Mike & James), some cymbal rolls, a thunderous stamp of insurrection, and a clip of "Over the Rainbow".

Rainseek Afternoon

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)

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.