The ninth volume from Phil Zampino's long-running project CHANGES TO blind is his first concept album, an examination of a life, its value, and its curiosity in sound. Developed from recent recordings and performance projects, the album is guided by plundering the oldest album in Zampino's personal collection, a 10" album from his childhood titled "A Day at the Circus". The performance was titled "The Telescopic Circus" and was performed in the Wilmington, NC series Hooked on Sonic that Zampino's record distribution and retail service, Squidco, produces each month. The extracted work becomes an apt analogy for the carousel-like existence most of us experience, as the circus theme weaves itself around the 13 tracks of the album, contrasting and blurring with concepts of life, generally and specific to the CTb experience, asking the questions:

Is life a tightrope for a pig to cross? A circus balloon blown beyond its tensile strength? The repeated watering before sudden desiccation? What is a life?

Does it deserve applause? Is it lost in a shimmering light, consumed by resonation? The woods spinning your compass wildly while birds laugh? Does life wrap itself around your garbled globe?

What is a life?

Nine Volumes. It's been a long journey, the CTb project starting in 1984 with an Atari computer, a couple of synths and a microphone. That song project was an obsession for the next decade, and paused for a few years where it was moved to NYC, changing and absorbing a tremendous amount of diversity in music and sound. Losing interest in song, and evolving tpward sonic experimentation with a tangent in sound poetry, the tools changed, acoustic instruments merged with electronics, field recordings and curious sounds. One certainty is: the journey has been persistent, and life is long and convoluted. Enjoy the circus!