The 13 tracks on this ninth installment in sound artist Phil Zampino's CHANGES TO blind series add up to a reflective questioning gesture expressed via a multi-textured music composed of synthesisers, samples, field recordings, "plunders," voice and texts.

The central existential question ("What is a Life?") is clearly stated right from the start and gets reiterated verbatim and in varied, sometimes oblique formulations: The sonic concoctions serve to circle the question, leaving the listener, as is often the case in worthwhile philosophical treatises, with more questions than actual answers, although the heart of the matter is squarely confronted and listeners are urged to "hang onto the strings or you'll lose them," the answers being not unlike some colorful balloons we might pick up at a midway fair.

Aspects of life that get kaleidoscopically tossed about in the simmering, moody and at times exuberant soundscapes on the album include childhood memories, pop-culture aesthetic experiences, political undercurrents, communication principles, light, time, and the existential abyss we all ultimately are prey to at some point or other.

A leitmotif of the album comes from a circus recording from the artist's personal collection and appears as "The Telescopic Circus" parts 1,2,3, 4 and 5... injecting an eerily tragic clown-like note to the set of pieces. These are interspersed by Zampino's own cryptic commentaries, as well as sound patches from a dazzling array of sources. The end result is a kind of musique concrete meets The Mothers of Invention meets Jean Paul Sartre, due to its blend of serious, comic and just plain campy textures through which we are urged to consider the nature of our experience.