Konrad Kinard, the Texas-born composer, performance artist, and multi-instrumentalist known for his collaborations across avant-garde, Americana, and experimental soundscapes, unveils new album, War Is Family (Surviving the Cold War and the Unraveling of an Imagined America).
A haunting blend of spoken word, sound collage, and music, War Is Family unfolds as what Kinard calls “a radio drama without the drama or the radio.” Drawing on his childhood in Cold War-era Texas, the work blurs memoir, myth, and sonic memory — an elegy for an America that never quite existed. “I was born a Texan. I was born into the Cold War. Sputnik circled the earth and shattered the peace in my home. This album is a letter from that time — from a child raised under the eternal threat of annihilation — to the Now,” he shares.
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Fredrik Kinbom at Madame Vega’s Boudoir (Berlin). Additional production and engineering credits include Boris Wilsdorf at AndereBaustelle Studio (Einstürzende Neubauten), Berlin; Bryce Goggin at Trout Studio (Anthony and the Johnsons, Royston Langdon), Brooklyn, NY; spoken word and overdubs recorded by David Whitaker at Old Chapel Recording Studio, Leeds.
Spanning twenty tracks — from the ominous “Born A Texan” to the cathartic “A Texas Summer Night” — the album reconstructs the psychological terrain of a generation raised under nuclear threat and cultural fragmentation. It weaves field recordings, spoken monologue, live performance, and traditional instrumentation into a deeply personal historical soundscape.
Kinard’s narrative performance recalls the intimacy of radio theatre and the existential weight of performance art — a hybrid form he has honed across decades of work in New York, London, Berlin, and beyond.
Check out War Is Family (Surviving The Cold War And The Unraveling Of An Imagined America) and find Konrad Kinard on his website and Facebook.
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