Charles Amirkhanian

About

The creative journey of Charles Amirkhanian, the Armenian-American architect of sound, traverses electroacoustic landscapes and the shimmering edges of text-sound experimentation. From 1930 to 1999, his compositions — akin to sculptural poems — interrogated the space where sound and spoken word embrace. With releases like "Five Text-Sound-Pieces" on Edition S Press, Amirkhanian's work dances in the liminal, the interplay of vocal texture and rhythmic innovation spiraling into fractals of auditory perception. His oeuvre is a kaleidoscope of formats — the omnipresent cassette, the venerable LP, the tactile reel — each medium a vessel for his exploratory vision. "Lexical Music" (1979) on 1750 Arch Records, for instance, reveals a process-driven approach that blends percussive elements with the timbral richness of human speech. His interviews with vanguard artists like Laurie Anderson and Bernard Heidsieck, captured on the tapes of Ode to Gravity, are not merely dialogues but collaborative acts of sonic exploration. Amirkhanian’s affinity for the interdisciplinary is evident, drawing parallels with contemporaries like John Giorno and Brion Gysin. His involvement in sound poetry and electroacoustics situates him within a vibrant, if fractal, network of avant-garde creators, each echoing the others' innovations. The influence of jazz and blues pulses subtly beneath his compositions, a nod to the rhythmic foundations that underlie even the most abstract of his creations.