The Platypus Music Hour is 100% memory-powered. Plato (no relation) believed that all true knowledge was derived from a form of memory called anamnesis, which could be accessed only intuitively, by “contemplation with the soul.” Such contemplation was thought to be cathartically purifying of all bias and desire. Later neoplatonists, like Plotinus and Porphyry, elaborated on Plato’s idea by locating the act of recollection not in the mind itself but in the world-soul.

Many years later, Marcel Proust echoed Plato in calling stark attention to the involuntary quality of memory, while at the same time persuasively demonstrating memory’s unavoidably creative nature. Every memory is a new being, and yet it is constructed effortlessly, and of an instant; simultaneously brand new and eternal. Simultaneously improbable and inevitable.

Each episode of The Platypus Music Hour begins with a song chosen by the playlist’s curator. This song is passed to the first of a rotating series of participants, who is tasked with allowing herself to remember or evoke some other song. This new song is then forwarded to another rememberer, who repeats the process. No single participant can see any further backwards or forwards than the single song he is given, or the single song she responds with.

Like the word game where you change  L-E-A-D  to  G-O-L-D  one letter at a time, The Platypus Music Hour changes one song at a time, starting from, let’s say, The Boswell Sisters, and ending with, say, The Ventures, Grace Jones, Tito Rossi, or Gorecki. Improbable yet inevitable, uncreated by any single mind, alchemized into being by an unorganized but related–and possibly fated–collection of private memory experiences.

Twitter: @platmus
Email: platypusmusic AT mail DOT com

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. In collaboration with the best conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over one hundred concerts each year at its downtown home, Symphony Center, and at the Ravinia Festival on Chicago’s North Shore, where it is in residency each summer. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through best-selling recordings and frequent sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe.

Visit cso.org for tickets and information.

Music guy, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, sound designer, producer/engineer. Sometimes I put things I work on onto this page so others can hear.  Official page at www.soundslikejohn.com.

Website at soundslikejohn.com;
also see 44songs.tumblr.com for the Presidential song project!

I'm a one-man music laboratory -- mostly centered around the electric and acoustic mountain dulcimer, which I make myself in my workshop in South East Ohio, and more often these days in Wooster, which is Northeast Ohio.

I'm currently working with the aspects of the mountain dulcimer which tend to calm and soothe -- though I go through strong reactionary cycles now and again. When I have had enough of the meditative stuff, I head for the more adventurous realms. Sometimes this takes the form of wild filter-synched electronica, sometimes it is more bluesy, and sometimes it is in the "dark ambient" genre.

My music contains many influences, with Celtic music being the primary one most of the time. I've always been an improviser, and I have had some formal jazz training (Ohio State WI-89 BA Music), though I'm not a jazz musician by any stretch.

I love working with extremely simple, circular chord progressions: those progressions that seem to go on for hours and are hard to stop playing. There is a strong minimalist vibe to this.

I also love the DRONE which is one of the most appealing aspects of the mountain dulcimer. These days, I tend more toward arpeggiating the open drone strings of the dulcimer, rather than the more strident strummed drone typical of the more traditional styles of playing.

Cartoonist Julia Gfrörer and horror author Gretchen Felker-Martin discuss things that make them sad/horny/angry.

An American radio icon, Joe is known best for his engaging, often philosophical, monologues and radio dramas. Joe’s radio programs are at times dark and frequently funny. Adding to the absurd atmosphere of his monologues and dramas are loops of percussive music over drones.

Throughout his career, Joe has been honored with many major industry awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, and an Emmy. Over the years Joe’s distinctive approach to making radio has inspired producers around the country to experiment with and stretch the medium beyond traditional boundaries.  Be sure to subscribe to Joe's YouTube channel with full shows and/or selections uploaded each week. Go to:
https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeFrankOfficial

Find out more at www.JoeFrank.com

Sult explores the hidden sounds of acoustic instruments (guitar, contrabass, percussion), magnifying them with microphones so the audience can join them inside their silent cacophony. Subtle harmonics become saws cutting through metal, and creaking wooden bodies become sinking ships. Their expression is primitive and raw, but while their playing embraces chaos, it is matched with discipline and the history of a decade-long mind-meld. The group sounds as one, with the gestalt of simultaneous layers taking primacy over any solo expression. The equality of the voices, however, invites the listener to focus on threads of their own choosing and make their own discoveries.


Sult is a trio with members from Oslo and Oakland. They have been working together since 2007, and have regularly toured Europe and America. In addition to collaborating with musicians such as Bill Orcutt, Okkyung Lee, and Fred Frith, they have been regularly performing Skeleton with live cinema artist Greg Pope. They are also active as organizers within their respective local music communities.


"They combine to create a scrap-heap collage of dry, brittle, abstract sounds, which they control with exquisite patience in slowly developing cycles of tension and release." -- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Spellbinding short stories by established and emerging writers take on a new life when they are performed by stars of the stage and screen. Listen free on your computer or mobile device. Symphony Space, the home of Selected Shorts, was founded almost 40 years ago in the belief that the arts bring people together, transcend barriers, and celebrate both our similarities and our differences. That belief remains our guiding principle and is more important now than ever. Your generosity during the Covid19 crisis will help us continue to provide great programs free of charge. Thank you for your support.

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