American Memory (2024)

The fifth Imperial Valley release, constructed around a 1946 public information broadcast about the dangers of despotism, was timed to coincide with the 2024 US presidential elections. This sixth instalment retains focus on present-day America, albeit refracted through CF Moore’s imaginal roadtrip along the southern reaches of the golden state:

“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...”