Topic: Pauline Oliveros

[Mandryka]

Outstanding early piece here, I of V - I think you can hear a drones already! Ethereal music, calm and poised.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/2kJD0dbE9Ow" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/2kJD0dbE9Ow</a>

[Mandryka]

Sonic Meditations

https://monoskop.org/images/0/09/Oliveros_Pauline_Sonic_Meditations_1974.pdf

[Mandryka]

This is a goody, some of Wadada Leo Smith’s contribution is a jazzy, it’s what people who don’t know about jazz think jazz sounds like. That’s puts me off a bit, but that’s just me, and this is evidently the record of a real musical encounter, intense. Impossible for me to stop listening in fact.



https://www.soundohm.com/product/nessuno

[T. D.]

Thanks, that was good and exceeded my expectations. I find Tilbury hit-or-miss and haven't been knocked out by Mitchell's and Smith's notated compositions, but Nessuno really worked.

Not sure about "Smith’s contribution is a jazzy, it’s what people who don’t know about jazz think jazz sounds like"...Likely not to everyone's taste, but few would mistake Smith's playing here for bebop, swing, "West Coast jazz" or most jazz sub-genres I can think of. Maybe (with the mute) somewhat redolent of Miles Davis, though.

[Mandryka]

Thanks, that was good and exceeded my expectations. I find Tilbury hit-or-miss and haven't been knocked out by Mitchell's and Smith's notated compositions, but Nessuno really worked.

Not sure about "Smith’s contribution is a jazzy, it’s what people who don’t know about jazz think jazz sounds like"...Likely not to everyone's taste, but few would mistake Smith's playing here for bebop, swing, "West Coast jazz" or most jazz sub-genres I can think of. Maybe (with the mute) somewhat redolent of Miles Davis, though.

Yes I kind of knew anyone who listened to it would enjoy it, it is special.

I’ll tell you two amazing things with Tilbury. First, Duos for Doris with John Rowe



https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/duos-for-doris


And Barcelona Piano Solo



If you look at his website you’ll see he has recorded a lot of Beckett related material, which I intend to explore

www.jtilbury.com

But yes he is hit an miss. He has chosen a particularly unsympathetic instrument though.

[T. D.]

No disrespect to Tilbury, who's practically a legend of contemporary piano. I once held him in the absolutely highest regard and considered his recordings self-recommending, but over the years heard a number of things I didn't care for and am now more cautious. Never heard him live, but would jump at the chance. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Mandryka]

No disrespect to Tilbury, who's practically a legend of contemporary piano. I once held him in the absolutely highest regard and considered his recordings self-recommending, but over the years heard a number of things I didn't care for and am now more cautious. Never heard him live, but would jump at the chance. Thanks for the suggestions.

I listened to Barcelona again after making that post. It was his first solo improvisation. I think you can tell he’s nervous at first, but after about 5 minutes it settles down and becomes incandescent. It’s spacious, quiet, but punctuated by dramatic moments, very well judged.

[Mandryka]

https://www.discogs.com/Triple-Point-2-Pauline-Oliveros-Doug-Van-Nort-Jonas-Braasch-phasetransitions/release/5970328

New discovery. Someone said CD3 is amazing. It is.

[T. D.]

Recent locally produced video:

Pauline Oliveros: The Witness (1989)
Performed in the Widow Jane Mine on the Snyder Estate on May 27, 2021

Claire Chase, flutes
Susie Ibarra and Alex Peh, percussion
Senem Pirler, electronics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45pGO9oyxo

[Mandryka]

Recent locally produced video:

Pauline Oliveros: The Witness (1989)
Performed in the Widow Jane Mine on the Snyder Estate on May 27, 2021

Claire Chase, flutes
Susie Ibarra and Alex Peh, percussion
Senem Pirler, electronics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45pGO9oyxo

Will watch later, enjoying this suite for accordion and electronics this afternoon

[Mandryka]

This morning it is not raining, so I am listening to After Dinner with the Trogs on this 

On their 1990 release, Troglodyte's Delight, Pauline Oliveros, and the Deep Listening Band didn't just use water as a backdrop or compositional element. Instead, they treated it as an additional instrumentalist within the ensemble's line-up. There were solos for water, feedback mechanisms between humans and H2O, liquid following human guidance, and liquid acting as a leader. The entire performance took place on a canvas constantly filled with droplets, rain, or the babbling of a stream. Other albums may have garnered more attention or praise in Oliveros' career. But Troglodyte's Delight can be said to constitute her most representative and demonstrative effort, communicating the depth of her philosophy as well as her entirely natural approach to collaboration. There was something playful and rebellious about the record too. It didn't sternly question the borders of music — it outright ignored them. And it may well have been dreamt up decades earlier, in the head of a nine-year-old girl, exploring the world around her through sound.

[T. D.]

Scheduled for release Oct. 15 on Trost (Austria):



OK, I unfairly gave Oliveros top billing...no disrespect intended, I doubt there are many threads on the other 2 principals. 

[Brewski]

Scheduled for release Oct. 15 on Trost (Austria):



OK, I unfairly gave Oliveros top billing...no disrespect intended, I doubt there are many threads on the other 2 principals. 

You are totally fine to cite Oliveros! I have not heard of Léandre, so thank you for putting her on my radar. And just last week at the TIME:SPANS Festival, cellist Seth Parker Woods did Lewis's Not Alone (2014-2015), a virtuoso exercise for cello and electronics, with the latter swirling around the room, thanks to well-placed speakers.

But looking at the Trost website, I see that this is a single piece, performed by all three of them!  A potential treasure, so thanks again.

--Bruce

[T. D.]

Oops, it's already on Trost's bandcamp page, both DL and physical. I'm listening now.
I got the Oct. 15 from Dusty Groove's website (Chicago shop that is good for imported jazz/improv recordings).

I think of Joëlle Léandre as mostly an improv musician (quite a big name in that field), but she's also active in "new music". I've heard recordings of Scelsi and Cage.
According to wiki,

Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951 in Aix-en-Provence, France)[1] is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation.
In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain, and worked with Merce Cunningham and John Cage.[2] Both Cage and Giacinto Scelsi have composed works specifically for her.

She's appearing in this year's Other Minds festival in SF, which is a big improv/free jazz thing:
https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-25/

[Mandryka]

You may like this, with Leandre. It's less nervous than Play as we go, there are less notes per square inch, it is more introverted and austere.



George Lewis recorded duos with Leandre on an album called Transatlantic Visions, which I'm just downloading now.

[Mandryka]

Scheduled for release Oct. 15 on Trost (Austria):



OK, I unfairly gave Oliveros top billing...no disrespect intended, I doubt there are many threads on the other 2 principals. 

And listening to this now with proper sound rather than the free bandcamp stream and I’m getting a much more positive impression. There’s much more relief and contrasting textures than I thought before. But the overall impression is of 40 minutes with some interesting moments, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of the parts.