Composer & host Charlie Morrow in conversation down memory lane with Charlemagne Palestine, Brooklyn-born polymath artist & musician, early champ of NY- minimalist music but also a self-described MAXimalist, stuffed animal aficionado, percussionist, carilloneur, [church] organist – & entertaining storyteller.

© photo: Plamen Hubenov. He got his start singing Jewish traditional songs but quickly moved at age 12 to performing for more unorthodox performers such as the Beats, playing back up percussion for the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Kenneth Anger, Tiny Tim. He also emerged as a sought-after carillonneur @ NY’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church & others.

He has collaborated with Tony Conrad, Morton Subotnik, Simone Forti, electronica duo Pansonic, Michael Gira, Janek Schaefer, Rhys Chatham, David Coulter … He is often accompanied by his menagerie of stuffed animals. Palestine has performed all over the globe & has put out LPs on renowned labels such as Staalplaat, Baroni, New World Records, Sub Rosa, Algha Marghen. He moved to Brussels in the late 1990s.

Subject matter: “Palestine: My name & the should-be country,” carillons, mutual friends, Moondog, Tony Conrad, Allen Ginsberg, Dutch Schultz, the Jewish Mafia, Queens, Laguardia, Tiny Tim, bongos, weed dealer, Moses Asch, Folkways, gamelan, Charlemagne – holy Roman emperor, Charlotte Moorman, Morton Subotnik, Jerome Rothenberg, Vito Acconci, Belgium, tramping around, Pansonic, Mike Vainio, CM Hausswolff, Magoos Bar in Tribeca, David Toop, dimensional sound, Johnny Ray [“Little White Cloud That Cried”], Children’s Hour television program, falsetto, CBS documentary studios, NYC record libraries, Warhol, Taylor Mead, Jack Smith, Dick Higgins, Herbert Marcuse & Disney, drone organ works, Sibelius Museum – Finland …