In stock
2 LP
Pauline OLIVEROS
“The Well & The Gentle”
The Well & The Gentle, two of the major works of Pauline Oliveros, are presented here in a first time reissue on double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with extensive liner notes.
If Oliveros had followed a more conventional path she may have, all social obstacles aside, been considered among the major composers of her time. However, Oliveros approached composition in a more egalitarian manner. She wrote music for musicians to interact with or, in the composers words, she wished to create "an inclusive and interdependent and unfolding world of relationships."
Oliveros' propensity towards inclusion is part of what makes this work so remarkably distinctive. The Well & The Gentle is carefully crafted, allowing performers to participate in the creation of the work. Players are asked to collaborate, focus, react and make imaginative choices. Only then can the performers "pass through stages of awakening to the possibilities inherent in making music, working together, leading to the essence of what can shape musical impulses and individual freedom simultaneously."
Unlike most major composers of the era, Oliveros' work focuses on collaboration and improvisation. For Oliveros, the processes involved in making music are as fundamental as the music itself. Oliveros creates, as Arthur Sabatini put it so eloquently in the liner notes, "A world in which sound and the practices entailed in making music merge; become, at once, source and atmosphere, energy and essence, presence and dynamic."
Pauline Oliveros was an electronic music pioneer, accordionist, composer and educator who resided in Kingston, New York. Her instrument was tuned in Just Intonation and she often included it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled Sonic Meditations.
A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. West coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvised with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings.
39,00€
In stock
11 CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Reverberations : Tape & electronic music 1961-1970”
Reissue 2022, new version with 11 cds..
“Dense 11 disc collection of Pauline Oliveros’ early and unreleased electronic work including her very first piece for tape made in 1961. The majority of these pieces have never before been released.Organized chronologically by studio this set not only documents Pauline’s earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Extensive liner notes including essays from Pauline Oliveros, Alex Chechile, Ramon Sender, David Bernstein, Corey Arcangel and Benjamin Tinker. This box set is being released in conjunction with Pauline Oliveros’ 80th birthday celebrations. Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." John Rockwell Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros’ commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble.
Through Deep Listening Pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros’ form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and to explore the individual characteristics of each room. (Tuning Chart)
Pauline Oliveros has built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications and musical compositions that she has written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and interarts companies. She has also provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14 year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego to acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She now serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros has been vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people.
“Time Perspectives”, “Mnemonics I”, “Mnemonics II”, “Mnemonics III”, “Mnemonics IV”, “Mnemonics V”, “II Of IV”, “III Of IV”, “IV Of IV”, “V Of IV”, “III”,
“Team & Desecrations Improvisation”, “The Day I Disconnected The Erase Head And Forgot To Reconnect It”, “Jar Piece”, “Another Big Mother”, “Fed Back 1”, “Fed Back 2”, “5000 Miles”, “Angel Fix”, “Bottoms Up 1”, “Nite”, “Ringing The Mods 1 Heads”, “Ringing The Mods 2 Tails”, “Three Pieces I”, “Three Pieces II”, “Three Pieces III”, “Big Slow Bog”, “Boone Bog”, “Bog Bog”, “Mind Bog”, “Mewsack”, “50-50 1 Heads”, “50=50 2 Tails”, “A Little Noise In The System”, “Red Horse Headache”.
85,00€
Out of stock
2 LP
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Reverberations 1”
Pauline Oliveros Home Electronic Music Studio (1961)
Time Perspectives 19:38
San Francisco Tape Music Center (1964-1966)
Mnemonics I (15:09)
Mnemonics II (9:55)
Mnemonics III (17:34)
Mnemonics IV (18:64)
In 2012 Important Records released a historic 12 CD box set compiling much of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work. Reverberations 1 is the first release in an ongoing series dedicated to releasing the entire 12 CD box set on vinyl.
Organized chronologically by studio, the complete Reverberations not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself.
Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian was an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she explored found, forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it and it eludes many who try to write about it.
In partnership with the Pauline Oliveros Trust, Imprec will be releasing essential titles from Pauline Oliveros' catalog on vinyl including the complete Reverberations box set, Tara's Room, Sounding/Way (with Guy Klucevsek) and many more.
"On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." John Rockwell
"Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." John Cage
31,50€
Out of stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“No mo”
In the summer of 1966 I worked in the classical Electronic Music Studio at the University of Toronto for six weeks. The system I used to create No Mo and Something Else consisted of Layfette tone generators, noise source and tape delay. In the Fall of 1966 I was the newly appointed director of the Mills Tape Music Center formerly the San Francisco Tape Music Center and now the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. Bog Road was created at the Mills Tape Music Center in the Summer of 1967 with the Buchla Series 100 Box. The studio overlooked a pond where frogs were singing a chorus that inspired a series of Bog pieces.
14,50€
Out of stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Alien bog – Beautiful soop”
Pauline Oliveros completed Beautiful Soop (1966) and Alien Bog (1967) utilizing the original Buchla Box 100 series created for the Tape Music Center by Don Buchla and her tape delay system. “I was deeply impressed by the sounds from the frog pond outside the studio window at Mills. I loved the accompaniment as I worked on my pieces. Though I never recorded the frogs I was of course influenced by their music.”
14,50€
Out of stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Electronic works”
Released 1997. I of IV was made in July 1966 at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio and was first released by CBS alongside works by 2 other young composers - ’Come out’ by Steve Reich and ’Night music’ by Richard Maxfield. It is really only in recent years (born out of the more radical elements of dance music, electronica and ambient music) that music like this is being rediscovered by a growing number of people interested in all manner of experimental electronics. Track 2 was also made in the summer of 1966 at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio, and track 3 was made at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1965. The 3 pieces on this CD are all live experiments, which at the simplest level use either an array of oscillators or filters, a mixer and one spool of tape feeding a series of (variously set up) stereo tape machines. Long delay lines, pile ups of noise and rich sonorities are the stuff of this music. The third piece also samples a chunk of Pucini’s ’Madame Butterfly’, which only makes this music seem even more contemporary.
11,50€
In stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Crone music”
Pauline Oliveros, solo accordion; Panaiotis, processing and mixing. “Commissioned by Mabou Mines, the experimental theater group from New York, for their interpretation of "King Lear," Oliveros’ Crone Music is a subtle and haunting electronic music endeavor. Interfacing an abundance of digital delay processors, reverb effects and foot pedals to bend pitches from piercing to twisted, sonorous tones, with her one-of-a-kind expanded accordion, Oliveros produces rich, eerie textures. "Studio recordings from 1989-90, ’commissioned by Mamou Mines, the New York based experimental theater collective, for their production of Lear by William Shakespeare.’ In use herein is a fairly complex series of pitch-modulated foot-controlled digital delay units which render Oliveros’ solo accordion playing into a full accordion ensemble. This all results in seriously dense overtone/ghost chord action, complete with microtones and countermelodies emulating something like a grand-pipe-organ jam session. Heavy. By far the most ear-triggering of all Oliveros’s explorations with said instrument."
14,00€
Out of stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Accordion & voice”
Back in stock. “Utterly essential document of early American minimalism from this pioneering composer. Remastered from the original analog tapes by Carl Saff. Pauline Oliveros (b. 1930) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. Her instrument is tuned in Just Intonation and she often includes it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled Sonic Meditations. A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. west coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings. “Accordion and Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played Rattlesnake Mountain. I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain - the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. Horse Sings From Cloud taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Records for bringing these pieces to be heard again.” Pauline Oliveros 2007
13,00€
In stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“The wanderer”
Reissue. “This is the first time The Wanderer has been made available on cd after over 20 years out of print. Included as a bonus track is a lengthy live recording of Oliveros with David Tudor that was discovered on the reels during the digital transfer! Remastered from the original analog tapes by Carl Saff. Utterly essential document of early American minimalism from this pioneering composer. The Wanderer is the sister record to Accordion & Voice also available on cd from Important. The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C
D D
E F
G
) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3-4 and 3-8. Part I, Song, is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, Dance, demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer’s world premiere, as it was performed 27 January, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussion, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. Horse Sings From Cloud, written in 1975, is one of Oliveros’ best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of Horse Sings From Cloud has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, “Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it.” This time, Horse Sings From Cloud is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneion are Heloise Gold on harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.”
D D
E F
G
) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3-4 and 3-8. Part I, Song, is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, Dance, demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer’s world premiere, as it was performed 27 January, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussion, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. Horse Sings From Cloud, written in 1975, is one of Oliveros’ best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of Horse Sings From Cloud has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, “Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it.” This time, Horse Sings From Cloud is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneion are Heloise Gold on harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.”
13,00€
Out of stock
CD
Pauline OLIVEROS
“Lion’s eye-Lion’s tale”
“Lion’s Eye for Gamelan was commissioned in 1985 by Barbara Benary for Gamelan Son of Lion. Lion’s Eye for Synthesizer was commissioned concurrently by Neil Rolnick for iEAR Presents at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Both versions were performed in 1985. The intention to combine both pieces in order to expand the tempo range of the Gamelan was first realized in May of 1989 in performances by the Berkeley Gamelan in Oakland and San Francisco, California under the direction of Daniel Schmidt. This version of Lion’s Eye is recorded on this disc. The duration of “Lion’s Eye” is forty-five minutes. “Lion’s Tale” (1989) is composed of layered polymetrical, polyrhythmical patterns. The patterns are played at speeds ranging up to 1800 per minute. The composer designed patterns are generated by the computer program. “Lion’s Tale” may be created in a new version every time the program is run. “Lion’s Tale” also exists in a MIDI version for a keyboard performer. Both versions are available from Deep Listening Publications. Known internationally as a composer, accordionist and teacher, Pauline Oliveros’s work in improvisation, electronic techniques, teaching methods, myth and ritual, and meditative and physical consciousness raising has changed the course of American music. She left the University of California at San Diego in 1981, at the rank of full professor, in order to support her ideas, creative projects and collaborations. All of her work emphasizes attentional strategies, musicianship and improvisational skills. Oliveros’ compositions have been performed worldwide.”
14,00€