We note the passing of Pauline Oliveros, one of the first and finest electronic and acoustic composers. In the 1960s and 70s Oliveros created dozens of elaborate computer and tape mixes, often adding acoustic sounds with birds and frogs. She also composed and performed on the accordion and created many pieces for solo accordion, prepared microtonal accordion and twenty-piece accordion orchestras. In later years she developed the theory of “Deep Listening,” in which performers and audience members would be asked to continuously listen to and respond to minute changes in pitch, timbre, or delay. She and other musicians would perform in underground cisterns, caverns, and cathedrals to catch long wave echo effects.
Tonight’s program will feature early tape pieces, an ear-splitting moog synthesizer “multi-mix,” and some 1980s accordion music, including a “King Lear” soundtrack. KBOO will be presenting a series of specials looking at different periods of her career. Stay tuned in December and 2017 for lots more music from other periods of Pauline Oliveros’s life.
Bonus! Pauline jams with Roscoe Mitchell and Wadada Leo Smith. Crushing riddims.
- KBOO