This Weekly is culled from a series of posts (1) (2) (3) on Continuo:

According to the Harvestworks website, TELLUS was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time…

Launched as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the TELLUS series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting edge music, documenting the New York scene, and advancing the careers of US composers. TELLUS was active for 10 years and, like the New American Radio series, captured the revolution taking place in the sound arts. The series included many landmark soundworks: Alison Knowles’ Nivea Cream Piece (Tellus#24), Christian Marclay’s Groove, Lee Ranaldo’s The Bridge, and Louise Lawler’s Birdcalls, to name a few.

Curated by Ellen Zweig, Tellus #22 ‘False Phonemes’ (1988) is based on the computerized human voice. It included Remko Scha, Larry Wendt, Alice Shields, Paul De Marinis, Remko Scha, Paul Lansky, Ron Kuivila, and John Cage. You can download it here.

Tellus #14 ‘Just Intonation’ (1986) — Just Intonation is any tuning system in which all of the intervals can be represented by whole-number ratios, with a strong preference for simple ratios — included Harry Partch, Ralph David Hill, Carola B. Anderson, David Hykes, Lou Harrison, Jon Catler, David Canright, David B. Doty, John Bischoff, and many others. “As far as I can tell, the Harry Partch isn’t available on the CRI or Innova Partch reissue series – I believe this is an exclusive track, not to be found anywhere else. It sounds very much like the classic ‘US Highball’, revised 1955. Additionally, David Canright uses Partch instruments for his ‘Rosier Sands’ and Lou Harisson’s track is in the Partch canon too. So that side A is pretty much a who’s who in the Harry Partch school of composers, circa 1986.” (Continuo).

The series included many women composers, and its curatorial policy — asking specialists to compile a program in their own field — insured state of the art results. For more information and a Tellus Cassettograph, go to Continuo.