Charlemagne Palestine on Music, Ritual, and the Live Experience

Charlemagne Palestine, the legendary American experimental musician and artist born in New York in 1945, will perform at the fifth edition of the Jazz is Dead festival in Turin, Italy, from May 27 to 29, 2022. The festival, titled Mutazione, also features Colin Stetson, Moor Mother, The Bug, Dälek, and Stephen O’Malley with Kaly Malone and Lucy Railton. In an interview with Artribune, Palestine reflects on how listening has changed dramatically since his seminal work Strumming Music nearly fifty years ago. He notes that while thousands of sound inventors are now accessible online, the live performance experience—the room, acoustics, and spontaneous interaction—remains essential. He describes himself as old-fashioned, wanting to feel the dampness and coolness and see open ears. On experimentation, he says innovation is difficult today but new genres mixing timbres are emerging worldwide. He associates his music with ritual, shamanism, and magic, stating that prolonged sounds allow him to transcend. Palestine also discusses his collaboration with Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra, composed of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan, and his use of stuffed animal toys, which he says never lie and can listen for eternity. He views performance as a dialogue, not a solitary act, and for his upcoming show at Bunker on May 27, he quotes "Que sera, sera."