The late Timothy Leary, the psychologist and writer known for helping to popularize psychedelic drugs during the counterculture movement of the 1960s, for writing The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and for coining such phrases as "turn on, tune in, drop out" and "set and setting" (among tons of other stuff), would have turned 100 on October 22. In celebration of that, Projekt Records founder and Black Tape For a Blue Girl member Sam Rosenthal is releasing Tim, where are you now?, "an electronic space music/art rock collaboration" which uses "[Leary's] own words accompanied by international artists exploring those same realms via their music." Sam got the permission and encouragement of Timothy Leary’s son Zach and the Leary estate to make the album, and it features music by Sam, Steve Roach, Erik Wøllo, Mark Seelig, Forrest Fang, Byron Metcalf, Henrik Meierkord, Brian Parnham, theAdelaidean, Ryan Lum & Anji Bee (Love Spirals), Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls), Martin Bowes (Attrition), Jarguna, Nathan Youngblood, and Mike VanPortfleet (Lycia), plus narration by Lee Ranaldo, Reggie Watts, filmmaker Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy), and others.
Sam spoke to us about the project, and said, "The album is concerned with what Leary was doing in the 1960s, advocating for consciousness expansion, and the rights of people to operate their brain as they prefered, rather than by societal constrictions. This is directly concerned with his work with psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD, as those were the tools that gave him the ability to get in the trenches with his subjects. Whether it was friends and artists tripping in his living room, or working with prisoners in the Concord, MA State Prison. My hope is that on his 100th birthday, people will re-examine his contribution to the way we think and operate our brains."