Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Pauline Oliveros | Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970



Yesterday's review on Pitchfork for the new Pauline Oliveros box set (9 out of ten stars, here) has me itching to buy a copy. I called up Soundscapes at 10:30 and was going to rush over before their 11pm closing time, but their copies have yet to arrive.

The twelve disk set seems the ideal way to absorb the composer's work and theories of Deep Listening. Astonishingly, the bulk of this material has never been released. I have very little in my collection by Oliveros, and almost no recordings, just her 1984 collection of writings Software for People, and her contributions to Source magazine. I'm equally eager to read the "substantial booklet of essays" that accompanies the set, in particular a text by artist Cory Arcangel, who studied under Oliveros. According to Pitchfork he "recalls her fondly describing a performance in the 60s where she tuned oscillators to the frequency of the hall, so the sound multiplied and sent people screaming. "I want to send people screaming from institutions!" Arcangel thought."

Oliveros, who celebrated her 80th birthday a week ago today, was the 2012 recipient of the John Cage Award, for outstanding achievement in the arts for work that reflects the spirit of John Cage.” The prize has a cash value of $50 000.



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