The name Pauline Oliveros is preferably associated with a single term, that of »deep listening«. It is easy to forget that a time existed for the pioneer of advanced drone before deep listening and also a time after. When the composer released her album »Accordion & Voice« in 1982, her first solo record as a performer, she had long since enjoyed a remarkable career as a tape and synthesiser trailblazer, and the fact that she was one of the first women in the field also goes to her credit. However, she had already discovered the accordion as her instrument of choice before this time. And she used it to create a tangible representation of sustained tones in two extended pieces on this record. Here she is pursuing a preliminary form of listening to the depths of the tones, inspired by the landscape around her house, where she lived at the time. Pauline Oliveros not only creates her own world of drone, but also dispels any prejudices one might have against the combination of accordion (»squeeze-box«) and singing (shanties, anyone?). Instead, a very earthly form of sound meditation with grainy overtones emerges. It is austere and at the same time free music, accessible in a brittle way, very friendly at its core.
Sarah Davachi
The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir
Late Music