Imperial Valley, American Memory

350gsm gatefold sleeve.
CDR with printed surface.
Typed information sheet.
Folded Time ephemera in manilla envelope.
Music download card.

 

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Soundcloud excerpts.

 

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Tracklisting:

 

1. American Memory, I
2. American Memory, II

 

Cover image: ‘Untitled photo, possibly related to: Sonoma County, California.’ by Russell Lee, 1942. Library of Congress Reference: LC-USF34- 071313-D. 

Sixth in a series of recordings for Imperial Valley, an area of Southern California that adjoins Mexico. These soundworks were assembled from public domain period recordings, ranging from TV & radio broadcasts to documentary and oral history sources. This found material was then extensively reworked and manipulated before being blended with contemporary recordings of acoustic instrumentation to create a richly layered aggregate of ‘folded time’.

Credited to CF Moore and first released on his Folded Time research imprint on March 1, 2025.

The publicity note advises: ‘It’s 2025. A fledgling dictator is seated in the Oval Office. There is talk of trade wars, of mass deportations, of reduced reproductive rights for women. In southern California a lone field recordist roams the Mexican border, cataloging the sounds of the desert. Glamis, Acolita Sand Hills, ghosts of Obregon.

‘Outside Yuma the power lines hum a lonesome ditch-bank blues. On the dustroads off the I-8 the car’s radio skips between stations. Amid the music and the static there are voices from a different century, but the fears they speak of are timeless. Isolation, deprivation, powerlessness...’