Konrad Kinard Revisits Cold War America with ‘War Is Family’
- Curious For Music Team
- Dec 29, 2025
- 2 min read
Konrad Kinard’s War Is Family (Surviving the Cold War and the Unraveling of an Imagined America) is a fearless exploration of memory, history, and imagination.
Across twenty tracks, the Texas-born composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performance artist fuses spoken word, experimental soundscapes, and Americana-infused instrumentation into a work that is both deeply personal and broadly resonant. From the ominous opening of “Born A Texan” to the reflective close of “A Texas Summer Night”, the album immerses listeners in a surreal, neon-lit Cold War America filtered through Kinard’s vivid storytelling.
The album’s opening tracks immediately set the tone. “Better Red Than Dead” and “The Bomb Shelter” evoke the existential anxiety of a childhood shadowed by nuclear threat, blending field recordings, minor-key instrumentation, and Kinard’s intimate vocal delivery to create a sense of pervasive tension. Even in its darker moments, there is a precision and care to the production that ensures the tracks never feel chaotic—they are deliberately sculpted sound portraits.
Kinard’s collaborative approach elevates the album. BJ Cole’s pedal steel provides a ghostly resonance, while cellists Eleonora Rosca, Emily Burridge, and Matthias Hejlik imbue tracks with a rich, cinematic depth. Additional textures—from harmonium and contrabass to subtle tap-dance percussion by Junior Laniyan—turn each song into a multi-layered experience, balancing experimental daring with accessibility.
Tracks like “Siddhartha Goes To Alabama” and “Sun Rises” reveal a softer, reflective side of the record. The spoken word passages here act as intimate letters, bridging past and present, memory and imagination. It’s in these moments that Kinard’s narrative skill shines brightest, transforming the album from a collection of songs into an evocative, almost theatrical memoir.
The production, handled by Fredrik Kinbom and augmented by Boris Wilsdorf and Bryce Goggin, is lush and meticulous. Each layer—whether voice, instrument, or ambient sound—sits clearly in the mix, making the album feel expansive without losing its sense of intimacy. There’s a careful tension between chaos and control, reflecting both the personal and historical narratives at play.
Ultimately, War Is Family is a masterclass in hybrid music-making. It’s at once elegiac, imaginative, and profoundly human. Kinard’s work blurs boundaries between performance art, avant-garde composition, and Americana storytelling, producing a record that is as intellectually engaging as it is emotionally resonant. It is a bold, unforgettable journey through memory, history, and sonic imagination.
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