Neuro… No Neuro is Kirk Markarian’s musical alter-ego: an electronic musician, abstract synthesist, painter, graphic designer, and full-time Tucson desert dweller.

MemLoss, his new full-length, has been one of those albums that doesn’t hit all at once. It’s crept in slowly, track by track, revealing its shape only after a few late‑night listens. A proper slow‑grower that rewards patience.

After those few listens, I had it in mind to review it, then realised the press release by Markarian already does a better job than I could on my best day.

So, here’s what he had to say:

“MemLoss is about my speech and memory becoming noticeably inconsistent.

Day-to-day, I am forgetting words when I speak (not when I write), as well as forgetting various steps in whatever task I’m supposed to be doing. Because of this, I’ve begun using my music, animation, artwork, etc., as a method of documentation. Not so much documentation of speech and memory loss, but of the confusion it leaves behind.

The most interesting part of this issue, to me, is the amount of proof it takes to get those around me to actually understand what is going on. From having to use descriptors instead of the actual words I need, to inadvertently missing parts of the processes I perform every day. While it is audibly and visibly apparent, rather than trying to understand, it’s discounted. Most frustrating is the decline. Of course, this is glossed over, because it’s like watching an hourglass – change is happening slowly – faster now than before, but still glacial to the outside observer.

MemLoss will be my opening statement on what is happening. Going forward, my style will both be pulling from the past and becoming more and more like what is happening to my mind. Fragmenting and reiterating.”

Here’s to Markarian, who took the unsettling discovery of his own slipping speech and memory and somehow turned it into an album, and a remarkably beautiful one at that.