LMJ19 CD CoMpanion
Listening for Music
through Community
curated by Pauline Oliveros
Leonardo Music Journal
CD Series Volume 19
Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023
LMJ19 CD
Listening for Music through Community
Curated by Pauline Oliveros
Leonardo Music Journal
CD Series Volume 19
1. naMeLess sounD Youth enseMbLe +
Guests: parenthesis 1 (5:13)
Nameless Sound Youth Ensemble under the direction of David
Dove. Performed by Paula Anicete (clarinet, voice), Chris Cog-
burn (percussion), David Dove (trombone), Ryan Edwards
(guitar, voice), Juan Garcia (bass), Jason Jackson (saxophones,
clarinets, other things), Matt Roberson (electronics), Jawwaad
Taylor (trumpet MC/voice), Luglio 2006. Web site:
2. norMan LowreY: In WhIrled
Trance(FormaTIons) (4:54)
Composed by Norman Lowrey, 1944. Performed by members
of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (Viv Corringham, Minne-
apolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.; Biagio Francia, Agropoli, Italy; Lief
Inge, Oslo, Norway; Xisuthra Lomu, Vancouver, British Co-
lumbia, Canada; Norman Lowrey, Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A.;
Andreas Mueller, Regensburg, Germany; Pauline Oliveros,
Kingston, New York, U.S.A.; Tina Person, Victoria, British Co-
lumbia, Canada; Liz Solo, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada;
Max D. Well, Regensburg, Germany; and Chris Wittkowsky,
Regensburg, Germany). Performed October 2008. Recorded
by Norman Lowrey. Web site:
novembre 2005, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA. Web site:
5. if, bwana: cIcada #1: VersIon ehg 9’
(5:04)
Composed by Al Margolis, 2008. Live performance by Lisa Bar-
nard (voice), Monique Buzzarté (trombone), Tom Hamilton
(Nord modular synthesizer); Jacqueline Martelle (flute) E
Al Margolis (computer) at the Emily Harvey Gallery, New York
Città, 18 settembre 2008. Live performance recorded on an un-
attended portable digital recorder. Composition “assembled”
by Al Margolis in late 2008. Web site:
6. Caterina De re: The gasholder sTupa
(exCerpts) (4:17)
Composed by Caterina De Re. Performers included Caterina
De Re (director, producer, vocals, composer, video, sound de-
sign, set, audio editing), Michael Pestel (Birdmachine, flute),
Elizabeth Panzer (harp), Ryder Cooley (accordion, singing
saw), André Laurent O’Neil (cello), Brandon Seekins (laptop,
MAX/MSP programming), Marshall Trammell (pocket trum-
pet), Surajit Sarkar (consultation, projection). Venue: IL
Gasholder (or Gasholder House) in Troy, upstate New York.
Photography by Wil Lindsay. Live recording by Alex Chechile,
29 April 2006. Edited by Caterina De Re.
3. sarah weaver: sema (exCerpt) (3:51)
Composed by Sarah Weaver, Giugno 2008. Performed by Sarah
Weaver (composer/conductor), Lesley Greco (voice), Anne
Hege (voice), Sarah Paden (voice), Zevin Polzin (guitar), Mar-
garet Schedel (electric cello) and Kevin Terry (guitar). Re-
corded live by Sarah O’Halloran at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork,
Ireland, 4 Luglio 2008. Web site:
7. seth CLuett: FleeTIng and massIVe (4:30)
Composed by Seth Cluett, 2008. Recorded by Jennifer Eb-
erhardt, Giugno 2008. Commissioned by the 2008 Movement
Research Festival. Curated by Milka Djordjevich, Jeff Larson,
Chris Peck and Anna Sperber. Web site:
4. toM biCkLeY: angelorum (exCerpt)
(6:46)
Composed by Tom Bickley. Performed by the Cornelius Cardew
Choir (Joseph Zitt, Tony Williams, Tommy Soden, Katherine
Setar [cantor], Bob Marsh, Cathryn Hrudicka, Brad Fischer,
Tom Duff [cantor], Dave Cowen, Tom Bickley [cantor] E
Nancy Beckman), directed by Tom Bickley. Recorded live, 20
8. DouG van nort: dlcgo (6:06)
Composed by Doug Van Nort, 2007. Performed by Tom Bick-
ley, Monique Buzzarté, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Al Margolis,
Kim McCarthy, Kristin Norderval, Pauline Oliveros, Zevin Pol-
zin, Roberto Rodriguez and Katharina von Rütte. Recorded
by Zevin Polzi, 10 Giugno 2007. Web site:
98 LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 19, pag. 98–99, 2009
©2009 ISAST
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9. MarC Jensen: paTTerns oF lIVIng and
soundIng (5:47)
Composed by Marc Jensen, 2006. Recorded in live perfor-
mance by the University of Oklahoma New Improv! Century
Ensemble, 16 April 2008.
10. kathY kenneDY: hmmm pubLiC
perforManCes (5:17)
Recorded by David Gutnick, Giugno 2005. Web site:
11. pauLa Matthusen: laThyrus (4:55)
Composed by Paula Matthusen, 2007. Performed by members
of the Florida International University Laptop & Electronic
Arts (FLEA) Ensemble (Pedro De Faria, Erik DeLuca, Juan
Espinosa, Jaclyn Heyen, Daniel Lepervanche, Nayla Mehdi and
Jaime Reveles) and recorded by Erik DeLuca, 2009. Web site:
12. shannon Morrow: lIsTenIng garden
(5:15)
Composed by Shannon Morrow, spring 2007. Performed by
Juditta Musette (voice and percussion), Jude Casseday (per-
cussion), Jay Cartwright (accordion), Wendy Spitzer (oboe),
Nicolette DeGroot (coconuts), Erin Bailey (saw), John Bar-
rile (cello), Steve Burnett (electric upright bass), Christopher
Thurston (double bass), Amy Wilkinson (bass clarinet), Su-
sanne Romey (bamboo flute) and Katherine Gill (violin). Re-
corded live in Durham Central Park in Durham, NC, by Joyce
Ventimiglia and Dan Overby, audio engineers, 28 settembre
2008. Web site:
13. Monique buzzarté: mouTh pIece (4:06)
Composed and performed by Monique Buzzarté
(trombone), Kristin Norderval (voice) and Viv Corringham
(voice). Recorded by Scot Gresham-Lancaster, 8 Giugno 2007.
Web site:
14. kristin norDervaL: skolelyder (ja, ja,
hey) (4:08)
Composed and recorded by Kristin Norderval, 2000. Sound
collage created from field recordings made of and with grade-
school children in the arctic region of Norway, under the aus-
pices of Musikk I Finnmark (MIF). Web sites:
15. eLainie LiLLios: lIsTenIng Beyond . . .
The lmj mIx (6:03)
Composed by Elainie Lillios, 2009. Web site:
production credits
Curated by Pauline Oliveros
Project Coordinator: Patricia Bentson
Design: Peter Soe, Jr.
All recordings engineered and remastered by Tom Erbe, UCSD De-
partment of Music, La Jolla, California, U.S.A. Web site: music.ucsd.
edu/~tre
Manufactured and printed by Eva-Tone, Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A.
Compilation ©
2009 Leonardo/ISAST
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Tracklist and Credits 99
CD CoMpanion introDuCtion
Listening for Music
through Community
Since 1988, a community has grown around Deep Listening. The practice
was established with the recording of the same name released by New Albion in 1989. Nel
liner notes to Deep Listening, I described for the first time how Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis and
I were listening to ourselves, one another and the marvelous space that we were experiencing
and recording. The reverberation time was 45 seconds and clear as a bell. This challenged us
to listen as never before. The Deep Listening Band was spawned out of this experience.
The Deep Listening Retreats began in 1991. Musicians, artists, writers and others attracted
to the concept have attended the retreats every summer for 19 years. Hundreds of Deep Lis-
tening workshops and classes have been given in many parts of the world. The Deep Listening
Band is now in its 20th year and currently features David Gamper, Stuart Dempster and me.
For the music and sound profession, Deep Listening is a matter of perceiving and making
sound interactively, in a way that expands beyond the music to include the environment. Rap-
port with the space of sounding and with the audience deepens the musical experience for
Tutto. A profound experience can be shared and its influence can be spread.
Tutto 15 composers represented on the LMJ19 CD have had some relationship to the Deep
Listening practice: Some are certificate holders; some have attended workshops and classes.
The pieces on the disc reflect the practice in a wide variety of ways.
The Nameless Sound Youth Ensemble fearlessly enters improvisation through their listen-
ing facilitated by David Dove. Theirs is a music of no hesitation—silences are honored and
perceived just the same as sounds. Many in the ensemble began their improvisation with little
or no musical training.
Norman Lowrey has created his music through his making of masks that sound. He sounds
his masks in a music of ceremony. He invites others to share in the sounding ceremony, Quale
includes audio tracks of past performances.
Sema by Sarah Weaver was developed during a Deep Listening retreat in Cork, Ireland
(2008), in collaboration with other retreat members. Sema was performed at the Quiet Music
Festival immediately after the retreat.
The Cornelius Cardew Choir (Berkeley, CA), formed and directed by Thomas Bickley, hosts
all levels of singers and performs pieces with and without notation. Bickley encourages mem-
bers of the choir to make pieces to perform as well. Angelorum was first performed in 1997.
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) makes backup tracks with a sampler. He often samples improvising
musicians on the fly to build the tracks during the performance.
Catarina de Re drew inspiration from the Troy, NY, community and a unique building to
inform her opera The Gasholder Stupa. De Re’s operatic voice explores the huge round brick
space of the Gasholder building as improvising musicians move through different cultural
expressions.
DLCGO employs a process of the individual creation of electroacoustic sound files that are
uploaded to a server, rated by the makers and mutated a number of times to create material
for improvisation, guided by Doug Van Nort’s score.
Rocks as instruments in a beautiful outdoor environment bring people together for Seth
Cluett’s fleeting and massive. This is a people-oriented piece that invites participation from any
who are interested.
Gathering information about daily rhythm cycles of many individuals produces the material
100 LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 19, pag. 100–101, 2009
©2009 ISAST
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for Patterns of Living and Sounding by Marc Jensen. The collection of the material through a
diary and the process of selection gives the musician a rich relationship to their daily lives that
he uses for sounding.
Kathy Kennedy’s extensive experience with radio transmitters, voice culture and large
groups inform her HMMM. Anyone can hum. Her invitation to participation in a public space
encourages strangers to make music together casually. Participant comments are a great part
of this excerpt.
Paula Matthusen cleans ears with her electroacoustic music. Her use of resonating materials
and clear sounds penetrates the space in a variety of patterns.
In The Listening Garden, colorful whirligigs await the wind and then turn to inform the
musicians when to play and with what characteristics according to Shannon Morrow’s instruc-
tional score. Out of doors in a public park, people who likely would not attend a concert are
attracted to the music through the unusual score.
Mouth Piece, an improvisation guided by trombonist Monique Buzzarté with two singers,
takes us into the acoustic space of the theater at Time & Space Limited in Hudson, NY. Their
interactions develop purely through their listening to each other.
In Skolelyder (ja, ja, hey), children improvise according to instructions by Kristin Norderval.
There is a wonderful sense of children’s play with sound.
Elainie Lillios goes deeply into electronics in Listening Beyond to express her relationship
with listening. She takes us with her on a lovely journey, carried by her beautiful electroacous-
tic sounds and her voiced invitation to follow.
Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (1932) is a composer, performer, author and philosopher. She pioneered Deep Listening, an aesthetic Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 LMJ19 CD Companion Introduction 101 CALL for PAPerS Lovely Weather: Leonardo Special Section Leonardo seeks to document the ways in which artists and scientists are addressing climate change in a cultural Partial list of Leonardo articles and projects concerned with global warming, climate change and related issues: George Gessert, “Gathered from Coinci- Andrea Polli, “Atmospherics/Weather Julien Knebusch, “Art & Climate Change," Julien Knebusch, “The Perception of Cli- Andrea Polli, “Heat and the Heartbeat of the Andrea Polli and Joe Gilmore, “N. Janine Randerson, “Between Reason and Ruth Wallen, “Of Story and Place: Com- Angelo Stagno and Andrea van der Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 L M J 1 9 c d c o M p a n i o n Listening for Music Curated by Pauline Oliveros naMeLess sounD Youth enseMbLe + Contact: David Dove, 1458 Lawson, Houston, TX 77023, norMan LowreY: In WhIrled Contact: Norman Lowrey, E-mail: The piece on the LMJ19 CD, In Whirled Trance(Formations), In Trance(Formations) is a simple conceptual piece calling Within this framework, everything is perfect. There is no need to worry about making mistakes. Everyone present is Begin in quietude . . . Return to quietude, still listening . . . Norman Lowrey is a mask maker/composer and Chair of the Music sarah weaver: sema (exCerpt) Contact: Sarah Weaver, 111 E. 14th Street, PMB 279, New York, Sema is a Persian word that means “pure hearing.” The term is Sema utilizes a form developed in collaboration with com- ©2009 ISAST LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 19, pag. 103–111, 2009 103 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 translated from metaphors with the gestural language Sound- I arrived at the title Sema through a personal process con- During the compositional process, I consulted with my col- Sema was written for the Quiet Music Festival Evenings at Composer/conductor Sarah Weaver works internationally with experi- seth CLuett: FleeTIng and massIVe Contact: Seth Cluett, 310 Woolworth Center, Princeton, NJ In rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just west of the Delaware I created fleeting and massive for participants on a field trip The title, as well as the social construction of the score, È “Politics should also inquire into the public (‘democratic’) Seth Cluett (B. 1976, Troy, NY) is an artist, performer, and composer 104 LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 toM biCkLeY: angelorum (exCerpt) Contact: Tom Bickley, 1811 Stuart St., Berkeley, CA 94703, Angelorum translates into English as “of the angels.” This is The Cornelius Cardew Choir was formed on May Day 2001 Tom Bickley listens to the world, always hoping to hear more and Berkeley and at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. if, bwana: cIcada #1: VersIon ehg 9’ Contact: Al Margolis, 50 Ayr Road, Chester, NY 10918, U.S.A. About 6 years ago I began composing the first of what became I have since been in the process of trying to get all seven of Al Margolis (B. 1955) was an activist in the 1980s American cassette LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes 105 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 he continues to run. He has been active under the name If, Bwana Caterina De re: Contact: Caterina De Re, PO Box 27294, Seattle, WA 98165, “Do a vocal performance, involve community, use the gas- Coupling Buddhist pilgrimage with an overly dusty indus- Video artist Surajit Sarkar was a perfect collaborator through- The first step in building audio components was offering 106 LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes to test their acoustic instruments together with my extended The direct experience of a pilgrimage centers on the energy A participatory work suits the Buddhist principle of “in- Caterina De Re uses improvised vocals, field recordings, electroacous- Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 DouG van nort: dlcgo Contact: Doug Van Nort, Arts Department, Rensselaer Poly- In 2006 I invited composer Kim Cascone to come to Montreal These series of pieces are collectively titled Genetic Orchestras, that I feel serves as a nice coda until the next time one can MarC Jensen: paTTerns oF lIVIng Composed by Marc Jensen, 2006. Recorded in live perfor- Contact: Marc Jensen, 1525 High Trail Rd., Norman, OK, Patterns of Living and Sounding is a piece that exemplifies com- This piece has been realized many times by different ensem- As a composed piece, Patterns of Living and Sounding gives Marc Jensen is a composer, performer, and improviser, who received LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes 107 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 the improvisation ensemble earWorm. He has published articles in the kathY kenneDY: hmmm Recorded by David Gutnick, Giugno 2005. Contact: Kathy Kennedy, 7243 rue Berri, apt. B, Montreal, QC, This recording is part of an audio documentary of my mul- HMMM is also a performance project informed by 2 years HMMM is also an opportunity for nonverbal communication The metaphor of the body and radio seems unavoidable in 108 LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes body to another. HMMM seems to encapsulate my relation- Being part of the Deep Listening community has inspired Kathy Kennedy is a sound artist with formal training in visual art pauLa Matthusen: laThyrus Contact: Paula Matthusen, 124 Mendoza Ave #8, Coral Gables, lathyrus is a structured, improvisatory, game-like piece mod- The group traverses musical timbral areas by performing This musical excerpt is from a live performance at the Her- lathyrus was commissioned by the Berlin Laptop Orchestra Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 formance feature field recordings made in Berlin during my Paula Matthusen writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and Monique buzzarté: mouTh pIece Contact: Monique Buzzarté, 110 Seaman Avenue, Apt 5L, Nuovo Mouth Piece (2007) began its development in Minneapolis Large geographical distances separated the artists (in New of Mouth Piece, Tuttavia, no texts were used, and the implica- Monique, Kristin and Viv are all certified to teach the medi- tative improvisation practices of Deep Listening. Monique Buzzarté is an avid proponent of contemporary music, com- Acclaimed as a singer, improviser and composer, Kristin Norderval has Viv Corringham is a British vocalist, sound artist and composer LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes 109 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 Work has been heard in Britain on BBC Radio 3 E 4, Resonance shannon Morrow: The lIsTenIng garden Contact: Shannon Morrow, 801 N. Duke St., Durham, This project was partially funded by the Durham Arts Coun- In 2006 I began to take an interest in creating compositional The Whirligig Music Project was conceived after a visit to My own experiment began shortly afterwards. The current I do not consider myself a composer, but rather more of an 110 LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes served well to prompt interactions between random groupings Video footage of the Whirligig Music Project, along with Shannon Morrow has been focusing on creative music for 17 years. kristin norDervaL: skolelyder ( ja, ja, hey) Contact: Kristin Norderval, E-mail: Skolelyder (ja, ja, hey)—school sounds—is a sound collage cre- English translation of the Norwegian voices heard on the recording: did you hear something? Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 this is a really fine sound Acclaimed as a singer, improviser and composer, Kristin Norderval has eLainie LiLLios: lIsTenIng Beyond . . . Contact: Elainie Lillios, E-mail: Listening Beyond . . . The LMJ Mix explores the relationship of Elainie Lillios’s music focuses on the essence of sound and suspension Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023 LMJ19 CD Contributors’ Notes 111 CALL for PAPerS re-Imagining the Moon Guest Editor: Sundar Sarukkai Human exploration of the moon has become the subject of renewed interest, with upcoming space mis- The moon has profoundly influenced the human imagination over the centuries, in the domains of myths, The engagement of poetry, art and literature with the moon has had a profound influence on these activi- The Leonardo Special Section “Re-Imagining the Moon” will remind us of this historical, cultural and sci- We are also particularly interested in documenting artists’ projects connected to current space exploration deadline: This is a three-year project. Manuscripts will be considered on an ongoing basis until 2012. submissions: Send manuscript proposals to Leonardo, 211 Sutter St., Suite 501, San Francisco, CA 94108, Authors are encouraged to submit a manuscript proposal before sending a full manuscript. author instructions: The project is part of the activities of the Leonardo Space Arts Working Group: Sundar Sarukkai, trained in physics and philosophy, has a Ph.D. from Purdue University. His research inter- Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/lmj/article-pdf/doi/10.1162/lmj.2009.19.98/1970633/lmj.2009.19.98.pdf by guest on 07 settembre 2023
LMJ19 CD Curator
E-mail:
based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation designed to inspire both trained
and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble
situations. During the mid-1960s she served as the first director of the Tape Music Center at Mills College, a.k.a. IL
Center for Contemporary Music, then as Professor of Music, and later as Director of the Center for Music Experiment,
at the University of California at San Diego. Since 2001 she has served as Distinguished Research Professor of Music
in the Arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), engaged in research on a National Science Founda-
tion CreativeIT project. She also serves as Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College doing telepresence
teaching and is president of Deep Listening Institute, Ltd. She received the 2009–2010 William Schuman Award from
Università della Columbia.
Artists and Scientists on the
Cultural Context of Climate Change
Editorial Committee: Julien Knebusch, Drew Hemment,
Ramon Guardans, Annick Bureaud, John Cunningham,
Andrea Polli, Janine Randerson, Jacques Mandelbrojt
context. As contemporary culture grapples with this critical global issue, this 3-year project will document
cross-disciplinary explorations by artists, scientists and engineers, working alone or in teams, addressing
themes related to global warming and climate change.
dence: Reflections on Art in a Time of
Global Warming,” Leonardo 40, No. 3,
231–236 (2007).
Works: A Spatialized Meteorological Data
Sonification Project,” Leonardo 38, No. 1,
31–36 (2005).
Web project of the French Leonardo
group Leonardo/Olats (l’Observatoire
Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-
Scienze),
mate Change,” Leonardo 40, No. 2 (2007)
P. 113.
Città: Sonifying Data Describing Climate
Change,” Leonardo Music Journal 16 (2006)
pag. 44–45.
April 16, 2006,” LMJ16 CD Contributor’s
Note, Leonardo Music Journal 16 (2006),
pag. 71–72.
Sensation: Antipodean Artists and Climate
Change,” Leonardo 40, No. 5 (2007).
municating Ecological Principles through
Arte,” Leonardo 36, No. 3, 179–185 (2003).
Straeten, “0-24 Licht: A Project Combining
Art and Applied Research,” Leonardo 40,
No. 5 (2007).
through Community
Vedere
from the tracks on the LMJ19 CD.
Guests: parenThesIs 1
Nameless Sound Youth Ensemble under the direction of David
Dove. Free improvisation by Paula Anicete (clarinet, voice),
Chris Cogburn (percussion), David Dove (trombone), Ryan
Edwards (guitar, voice), Juan Garcia (bass), Jason Jackson
(saxophones, clarinets, other things), Matt Roberson (elec-
tronics), Jawwaad Taylor (trumpet MC/voice), Luglio 2006.
U.S.A. E-mail:
Trance(FormaTIons)
Composed by Norman Lowrey, 1944. Performed by members
of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (Viv Corringham, Minne-
apolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.; Biagio Francia, Agropoli, Italy; Lief
Inge, Oslo, Norway; Xisuthra Lomu, Vancouver, British Co-
lumbia, Canada; Norman Lowrey, Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A.;
Andreas Mueller, Regensburg, Germany; Pauline Oliveros,
Kingston, New York, U.S.A.; Tina Person, Victoria, British Co-
lumbia, Canada; Liz Solo, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada;
Max D. Well, Regensburg, Germany; and Chris Wittkowsky,
Regensburg, Germany). Performed October 2008. Recorded
by Norman Lowrey.
site:
is a 5-minute excerpt from a longer work composed in late
summer 2009 for and performed by the Avatar Orchestra
Metaverse (AOM) in the virtual world of Second Life. Questo
particular recording is of a mixed-reality performance in the
Concert Hall at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey on 3
ottobre 2009 for which I played several of my real-life Singing
Masks while members of AOM located in British Columbia,
Vancouver, Newfoundland, Norway, Germany and Italy played
virtual versions of the masks. The event was hosted on Second
Life by U21 Global on a server located in Singapore.
for improvisation, “spontaneous order” (as Pauline Oliveros
calls it) given a particular mindset described in the score. In
this as well as other Singing Mask ceremonies, my interest is
in listening in to the moment and using masks to connect with
alternate realities; modes of cognition, if you will, or underly-
ing fabrics and weaves of energies.
invited to simply remain aware of the basic conditions: listen-
ing, transforming, or in other words being in whirled trance
(formation). The score reads:
Imagine your whole being in both First and Second Life
as a “vehicle of transformation.”
Breathe . . .
Always listening,
you are invited to
become entranced . . .
(trance)form yourself . . . by:
Sounding . . .
Moving . . .
Leaving space for quietude. . . .
You are welcome to wear singing masks or not
or to use any other means to sound/move/be still
Department at Drew University, Madison, NJ. He holds a Ph.D. In
composition from the Eastman School of Music. He is the originator of
Singing Masks. The masks, both ceramic and carved wood, incorporate
flutes, reeds, ratches and other sounding devices. Each mask has a
unique voice. They have been exhibited in East Coast museums and
galleries, including the New Jersey State Museum. Lowrey is a longtime
student/colleague of Pauline Oliveros, is certified in her Deep Listen-
ing practice and is on the Board of Directors of the Deep Listening
Institute. Lowrey has presented Singing Mask ceremony/performances
in such diverse locations as Plan B and Site Santa Fe in Santa Fe,
New Mexico; Roulette and Lincoln Center in New York City; The Deep
Listening Space in Kingston, New York; the New Jersey State Museum
in Trenton; and the site of pictograph caves outside Billings, Montana.
Among his most recent performances was Into The Deep (Dreaming),
presented in the concert hall at Drew University with Pauline Oliveros
and The Deep Listening Band.
Composed by Sarah Weaver, Giugno 2008. Performed by Sarah
Weaver (composer/conductor), Lesley Greco (voice), Anne
Hege (voice), Sarah Paden (voice), Zevin Polzin (guitar), Mar-
garet Schedel (electric cello) and Kevin Terry (guitar). Re-
corded live by Sarah O’Halloran at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork,
Ireland, 4 Luglio 2008.
NY 10003, U.S.A. E-mail:
used by various Sufi orders in reference to prayer, song, dance
and other ritualistic activities. Sema dancing is also known as
the dance of the whirling dervishes.
poser and contrabassist Mark Dresser, uniting music palettes
painting as a processor indicating parameters for improvisa-
zione. There are four movements in Sema: Hovering, Appearing,
Crossing and Sustaining. This excerpt is a segment from move-
menti 3 E 4. The total piece length is approximately 30
minutes.
nected with traveling to Ireland. In my heritage I am one-
quarter Irish, but I have had very little contact with my Irish
side due to family tragedies in the previous generation. Over
the years I have felt connection with my Irish grandmother,
Catherine Rosemary Quinlivan, although I never met her. IO
wanted to write a piece within this ancestral connection.
laborator Mark Dresser about the title. I spoke with him about
my grandmother’s middle name, Rosemary. Coincidentally,
this name consists of “Rose” and “Mary,” which were the names
of two aunts that had recently passed. Mark noticed “sema” in
the middle of the name Rosemary and was reminded of the
Italian word for seed, seme. I looked up sema and discovered
that its meaning has a direct relationship to Deep Listening.
Together the elements were perfect for the piece.
Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, Ireland. The festival took place
at the conclusion of the 18th Annual Deep Listening Retreat,
presented by the Quiet Music Ensemble. All performers partic-
ipated in the retreat, rehearsed during it and then performed
the piece at the festival. I specifically wrote in a way that would
reflect the Deep Listening practice and would highlight an
approach to the score by performers who were involved in the
Deep Listening Retreat.
mental music forms for large ensembles. A specialist in the conducted
language Soundpainting for over 10 years, Weaver utilizes this lan-
guage to process composed palettes through structured improvisation.
She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and based in New
York; her work has been heard at venues including Roulette (Nuovo
York City), the Stone (NYC), Lincoln Center (NYC), Now Lounge
(Toronto), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Triskel Arts
Centre (Cork), The Banff Centre (Banff), Directors Lounge (Berlin)
and iMAL Center for Digital Cultures and Technology (Brussels).
Weaver is a researcher and performer of telematic music—co-locating
ensembles via the Internet—with primary collaborators Mark Dresser
(University of California, San Diego), Pauline Oliveros (Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY) and Chris Chafe (Stanford Univer-
sity, CA). She has performed with other contemporary music figures
include Walter Thompson (originator of Soundpainting), Marilyn
Crispell, Karl Berger, David Liebman and Stuart Dempster, among
others. Weaver has given workshops and presentations at University
of Michigan, University of Iowa, Northwestern University, The New
School, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University College Cork, As-
sociation for Improvising Musicians Toronto, ANET II High Quality
Audio over Networks Summit, and the United Nations Headquarters.
Weaver is certified in Deep Listening and is on the Board of Directors
for the International Society for Improvised Music. See also
Composed by Seth Cluett, 2008. Recorded by Jennifer Eber-
hardt, 1 Giugno 2008. Commissioned by the 2008 Movement
Research Festival. Curated by Milka Djordjevich, Jeff Larson,
Chris Peck and Anna Sperber.
08544, U.S.A. E-mail:
River, sits the Ringing Rocks Park. Approaching the park along
a trail through the deciduous forest that surrounds it, visi-
tors encounter a mile-long boulder field with rocks made of
a substance called diabase. Diabase, the igneous equivalent
of volcanic basalt, has a high concentration of iron. What’s
more, the rocks ring when you hit them. Ringing Rocks Park
is the largest such deposit in North America, and families from
all over the country come to the park on weekends, sport-
ing hammers and hunting the field for rocks that ring like
bells. Visiting the field involves a commitment to climb, A
explore, to use one’s whole body to traverse the rough terrain
in search of sonic gold. From dull thuds to shimmery chimes,
Ringing Rocks is about exploration of the physical world at
the juncture between action and reaction, between work and
reward.
to the Ringing Rocks Park that I had been asked to lead for
IL 2008 Movement Research Festival at Judson Church. IL
24 dancers and musicians who came out that day were given
scores that could be worn around the neck, leaving their hands
and feet free to move. The score consisted of text-based instruc-
tions for hammering, moving and counting, which afforded
an opportunity to engage with the group, the materials and
the location through an oscillation between autonomous and
social listening and movement.
derived from a quote from The Practice of Everyday Life by Mi-
chel de Certeau:
image of the microscopic, multiform, and innumerable con-
nections between manipulating and enjoying, the fleeting and
massive reality of a social activity at play with the order that
contains it.”
whose work ranges from photography and drawing to video, sound
installation, concert music, and critical writing. Engaging the bound-
ary between the auditory and other senses, his work is marked by a
detailed attention to perception and to sound’s role in the creation of
a sense of place and the experience of time. The apparent tranquility
of Cluett’s work—at once gentle and unnerving—is concerned with
the rapidly shifting sensory landscape of technological development
and urbanization. Cluett’s work has been shown and/or performed
internationally at institutions and festivals such as Kill Your Timid
Notion at Dundee Contemporary Arts in Scotland; the 10th Rencontres
Internationales, Palais de Tokyo Museum and GRM in Paris; Heb-
bel am Ufer Theater in Berlin; the Osage Art Foundation in Hong
Kong; The Kitchen, WPS1/MoMA, Issue Project Room, and Diapa-
son Gallery in New York; the Institute for Contemporary Art, Studio
Soto, and Mobius Artist Space in Boston; the Betty Rymer, Heaven,
Artemisia, and Deadtech Galleries in Chicago; and the Deep Listen-
ing Space in Kingston, NY. He has created dance and theater works
with DD Dorvillier/Human Future Dance Corp, Hélène Lesterin/At-
las Dance, and Jen Mesch. His work is documented on Errant Bodies
Press, Sedimental, Crank Satori, BoxMedia, Stasisfield and Wavelet
Records. He has published articles for The Open Space Magazine,
Leonardo Music Journal, 306090, Earshot, and Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America.
Composed by Tom Bickley. Performed by the Cornelius Cardew
Choir (Joseph Zitt, Tony Williams, Tommy Soden, Katherine
Setar [cantor], Bob Marsh, Cathryn Hrudicka, Brad Fischer,
Tom Duff [cantor], Dave Cowen, Tom Bickley [cantor] E
Nancy Beckman), directed by Tom Bickley. Recorded live,
Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA, 20 novembre 2005.
U.S.A. E-mail:
a 9-section choral work created as a meditation on angels in
the Judeo-Christian tradition. All of the sections focus on the
angels mentioned in I Enoch 20, and their attributes and re-
sponsibilities described there. The excerpts in this recording
are Sections 5 (on Michael) E 8 (on Remiel). Michael, COME
archangel, protects human beings from forces that oppress
us and that keep us from realizing our authentic wholeness.
The three cantors intone the name “Michael” and are fol-
lowed by the choir singing long glissandi symbolizing ascent
to the heights of human potential and return to the deepest
levels of consciousness. A chime cues the beginning of Section
5, on the angel Remiel, the cantors intone that name, E
the choir and audience sing the names of people who have
died. Each singer chooses people to honor in this way. In this
manner we embrace the communities of our friends, family
members, teachers, mentors, eccetera. who have contributed to our
lives. This emotional component (awareness of both loss and
gratitude) yields empowerment to be present and contributes
to creative life on earth in the here (hear) and now. The first
performance of Angelorum was by the trio Comma (Joseph Zitt,
Matthew Ross Davis and Tom Bickley) a Washington, D.C.,
In 1997. Detailed notes may be found at
in Berkeley, California, by Bob Marsh, Kattt Sammon and Tom
Bickley. The ensemble sings at the intersection of inclusive
community and experimental music, strongly influenced by
Cornelius Cardew and his circle of the 1960s and 1970s in Eng-
land. The choir also draws inspiration from the experimental
music tradition and musicians such as Pauline Oliveros (E
the practice of Deep Listening) and John Cage. A number of
members have professional singing experience, mentre altri
have thought about singing and are using this to turn that
thought into sonic action. People feel free to make suggestions
about ways of performing a given piece, ask for help, try an
approach to composing and performing to see it that works,
eccetera. It is a diva-free zone (divo-free too). The Cardew Choir
understands its mutually supportive work to be responsible,
joyful and liberating political action, modeling a community of
creativity that honors each person’s abilities. As Bertolt Brecht
noted, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer
with which to shape it.”
more fully. He grew up in the semitropical soundscape of Houston,
sojourned in Washington, DC. (studying music, religion and infor-
mation science,) and came to California as a composer in residence
at Mills College in 2000. Through study with Pauline Oliveros, Ione
and Heloise Gold, he earned the Certificate in Deep Listening. He is
the curator for the series Meridian Music: Composers in Performance
in San Francisco. He teaches the recorder privately at his studio in
He is a member of the library faculty at CSU East Bay. He plays with
shakuhachi player Nancy Beckman as Gusty Winds May Exist and
with recorder player David Barnett as Three Trapped Tigers and co-
founded and directs the Cornelius Cardew Choir. Vedere
Composed by Al Margolis, 2008. The sound sources are from
a live performance by Lisa Barnard (voice), Monique Buzzarté
(trombone), Tom Hamilton (Nord modular synthesizer), Jac-
queline Martelle (flute) and Al Margolis (computer) at the
Emily Harvey Gallery, New York City, 18 settembre 2008.
Live performance recorded on an unattended portable digi-
tal recorder. Composition “assembled” by Al Margolis in late
2008.
E-mail:
my Cicada series. This was a 10-minute drone intended to be
used as a backing tape and was designed as a “discipline” piece
for three of us to perform with percussion instruments. L'interno-
structions were that in the first minute of the work, each person
played once, in the second minute twice, eccetera. The performers
did not have to interact with each other (or they could)—but
maintaining the discipline was the main point. I eventually
recorded seven different drones for the series—all between 9
E 10 minutes in length. The piece seemed to work best with
three performers or more (and has also been done with one
musician and two dancers—I can actually foresee many differ-
ent combinations, including video artists, eccetera.). When working
with the dancers for the version performed with them, a major
revision in my thinking about the instructions for the pieces
occurred. I had been thinking very linearly about the perfor-
mative aspect of the work—one action in the first minute, two
the second and so on. Well, the dancers asked, “What was an
action? Could it be the same thing repeated? Or stretched for
a longer period?” In agreeing that in fact those could be also
defined as performative variations, the piece could still main-
tain its focus on discipline, while becoming a richer listening
and playing experience. (I have also since discovered that I
can even play this alone if need be—for instance while using
Ableton Live—kind of cheating and yet it works.)
the Cicadas recorded. Cicada #1 is in fact the third to have a
recorded version (and a fourth has recently been completed
anche). The excerpted version presented here used as its live
backing track Cicada #4, to which we performed live at the
Emily Harvey Gallery in New York City. Since I already had re-
corded a version of Cicada #4, I decided that the live version we
had recorded might work well as the drone for Cicada #1. IL
version here is a studio construct using nine versions of the
live recording; each recorded track (action) being compressed
into a shorter and shorter time frame so that beginning in the
first minute of the piece one hears the Cicada #1 drone begin
and then a 9-minute version of the (originally) 10-minute live
recording of Cicada #4. In the second minute one hears an
8-minute version begin, and so on.
underground through his cassette label Sound of Pig Music and was
co-founder of the experimental music label Pogus Productions, Quale
since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous
studio constructions and more process-oriented composition.
The gasholder sTupa:
a pIlgrImage oF sonIc
IllumInaTIon (exCerpts)
Composed by Caterina De Re. Performers included Caterina
De Re (director, producer, vocals, composer, video, sound de-
sign, set, audio editing), Michael Pestel (Birdmachine, flute),
Elizabeth Panzer (harp), Ryder Cooley (accordion, singing
saw), André Laurent O’Neil (cello), Brandon Seekins (laptop,
MAX/MSP programming), Marshall Trammell (pocket trum-
pet), Surajit Sarkar (consultation, projection). Venue: IL
Gasholder (or Gasholder House) in Troy, upstate New York.
Photography by Wil Lindsay. Live recording by Alex Chechile,
29 April 2006. Edited by Caterina De Re.
U.S.A. E-mail:
holder.” This was my inspiration for a structured improvisation
called The Gasholder Stupa: A Pilgrimage of Sonic Illumina-
zione, which took place in Troy, upstate New York. Situated
in my neighborhood of that time, the industrial building
called the Gasholder is a vestige of Victorian architectural
history. Like previous visiting artists and graduates from
the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
I was magnetized to the site. The Gasholder’s round shape
and cupola top a potent acoustic space, with a distinctive
lengthy reverberation, perfectly suiting occasional sound art
performances.
trial space might appear completely incongruous. Tuttavia,
layering seemingly disparate themes and spatial sources has
often been my motivating force when composing soundscapes.
Previously, I had lived in Kathmandu next to the dome-shaped
Buddhist pilgrimage site called The Great Stupa of Boudhan-
ath and, to consider it with the Gasholder was, for me, an ap-
propriate coupling of community spaces—both visually and
for sound design.
out the process. As I edited video images, Sarkar suggested
projections that reflected the circularity of the building. Vari-
ous video pieces emerged, including spinning prayer wheels,
myself dancing, birds in flight and a NASA space mission with
astronauts bouncing around in space. These were hardly co-
hesive themes, but the bizarre choices worked brilliantly. IL
first time the performance team came together was an hour
before the event itself, and only then did collaborators receive
a “score”—a rough outline of the videos mapped to duos, trios
or group sounding. The track is a compilation of extracts from
the performance showing diverse moments.
Brandon Seekins a selection of my field recordings of peo-
ple doing circumambulations at The Great Stupa, as well as
other Asian sacred spaces. Using MAX/MSP programming,
he improvised with these files, adding his own electroacoustic
drones, and these sounds welcomed the audience when they
first entered the space. Weeks before the performance I met
separately with Elizabeth Panzer (harp), Ryder Cooley (ac-
cordion and singing saw) and André Laurent O’Neil (cello)
vocalizations in the Gasholder. It was evident that the building
itself was a perfect audio “processor.” Michael Pestel’s keen
sense of environmental space was hugely advantageous, E
he suggested the Birdmachine—a homemade instrument he
describes as “a bevy of bird sounds among others.” Together
with his flute, his sounds supported my birdlike vocalizations.
The finale of the “dueling horns” initially came to me in a
dream. Marshall Trammel masterfully played his tiny pocket
cornet, making a highly comical duo with myself on a massive
Tibetan long horn.
gathered at a special site and the occurrence of all manner of
coinciding actions. Spiritual teachers view these experiences as
having a unique impact on one’s consciousness. In The Gasholder
Stupa, people gathered onsite to experience unconventional
styles of video and improvised sound that unfolded pockets
of information, allowing glimpses of narrative within abstrac-
zione. Sounding can impact the consciousness in individually
significant ways, and the Gasholder’s powerful acoustic space
is unmistakably felt as something unique. Improvisation is a
risk every time because it champions the unknown and brings
forth “new listening” in Cageian terms. In this performance,
risk reigned supreme.
terdependent connection.” With this in mind, I created an
event where people could feel connectivity by learning about
The Gasholder’s history, witnessing the building interior, E,
for some, intrigue drew more involvement than just being in
the audience. Walking the neighborhood months before the
performance, I would chat with people on the streets, in the
shops and at the Troy Farmers’ Market. Inclusion was created
through the delegation of related opportunities no matter how
piccolo. This process allowed a segue through which some locals
could experience their first taste of performance and improvi-
sation in this manner, and for others curiosity was a powerful
draw card. Whatever the experience, the presentation allowed
a way to consider The Gasholder as something other than an
interesting building. Even years later, some locals fondly re-
member The Gasholder Stupa performance and the fun it
generated. For me it stands as one of the most touching ex-
amples of caring community spirit and supportive generosity
through performance art.
tic composition, performance, video art, and meditation. After mov-
ing to Germany from Australia in the ’90s she joined forces with one
of Germany’s most uncompromising sound artists according to John
Peel of the BBC—Strafe FR. She has also collaborated with renowned
improvisers including Peter Kowald, Butch Morris, Michael Pestel
and Pauline Oliveros, and in 2003 became a certified Deep Listening
teacher. Combining disparate themes, she is intrigued by the connectiv-
ity of perceptual dimensions. Since 1994 Caterina’s interest in Tibetan
Buddhist epistemology has been particularly evident in her work with
performance and electronic art. While in Tibet, India and Nepal,
she sonically and visually mapped spaces of spiritual activity. Questo
rich reservoir has formed the basis of many installations, exhibitions,
performances and compositions. Ongoing in her research is investi-
gating the feminine aspect of Tibetan meditative practice where the
understanding is of complementary and egalitarian embodiment. Questo
research has offered her exciting insights into the mind/body connection
with sounding. For Tibetans, the divine female—the “dakini”—can
be vocal, noisy, and even capricious, and for De Re this perfectly fits
meditation practice meeting her use of extended vocals and performance
art. She holds two graduate degrees in Electronic Arts.
Composed by Doug Van Nort, 2007. Performed by Tom Bick-
ley, Monique Buzzarté, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Al Margolis,
Kim McCarthy, Kristin Norderval, Pauline Oliveros, Zevin Pol-
zin, Roberto Rodriguez and Katharina von Rütte. Recorded by
Zevin Polzin, 10 Giugno 2007.
technic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, U.S.A. E-mail:
to conduct his workshop on genetic algorithms for collabora-
tive content creation. Participants would rate sound files, E
more “fit” members of the population would be chosen for
“mutation” (sound processing) and “mating” (essentially digi-
tal tape splicing). I was so struck with the experience of this
process that I decided to evolve this working method into a
fully fledged composition, which in fact has become a series of
pieces. In these works this evolutionary paradigm is directed
by compositional rules, including the nature of the beginning
“gene pool” and the type of mutation/crossover. At the same
time, the process directs the structure of the score itself, Di-
termining the number of sections, number of players in this
section, which sonic “generation” each player can draw from
and so on. Within these confines, the performance is improvi-
satory, drawing on each epoch of the evolved sonic gene pool.
In this way, there are actually two pieces to speak of: The first
is the process and experience of creating this pool—where
the participants experience their own sounds and mutations
interacting with other players over time. This is an anonymous
process where identities and dialogues are formed completely
through the digital media. The second piece is the perfor-
mance and score, when this entire multiple day-or-week pro-
cess of the pool’s unfolding is collapsed into 20–40 minutes of
a performance. Each performer at this point has an intimate
understanding of the material and modulates this pool in at-
tempt to convey this process to a new audience.
generally being named X Genetic Orchestra, where X is the name
of the ensemble. They have been performed on at least seven
occasions, including at the International Society of Improvised
Music conference in 2007 and in performance with the Florida
Electronic Arts Ensemble (FLEA), directed by composer Paula
Matthusen at various festivals in the Miami area. The recording
presented on this CD is the very first performance, which was
commissioned by the Deep Listening Institute for the Deep
Listening Convergence event in June 2007, which brought to-
gether 40+ musicians over the Internet in a 6-month-long “vir-
tual residency” before the final convergence of performances.
As such, this version is titled Deep Listening Convergence Genetic
Orchestra (or DLCGO). This version was special not only be-
cause it was the first but also because we evolved the piece
completely over the Internet and over such a long time period.
The piece truly spanned a great deal of time and space and was
realized in a communal effort. The final performance, in High
Falls, NY, was our first single-room experience of the piece,
adding another layer of meaning for the performers. While
later pieces involved software written for performance, this ver-
sion was free in terms of digital instrumentation, ranging from
my own custom granular performance system to Ableton Live
to playback in Audacity, which can be heard in the textures,
loops and unaffected sounds of this recording. The excerpt
that I have chosen merges the beginning with a later moment
experience one of these performances in the flesh.
and soundIng
mance by the University of Oklahoma New Improv! Century
Ensemble, April 16, 2008.
73071 U.S.A. E-mail:
posing by creating rules for behavior and interaction rather
than composing fixed material. As a social experiment, IL
piece revolves around exploring and sonifying individual
circadian rhythms and then combining them together into
a social whole. Each player is asked to select a set of events
or personal activities and then keep a 24-hour-long journal,
noting when any of those things occur during their day. Questo
journal becomes their part, with the day’s information com-
pressed into a 12-minute timeline. Each player selects a sound
to represent each of that player’s events, and all of the players
come together for the first time in performance to play their
parts. No rehearsal is allowed, and the conductor simply acts
as a clock.
bles, and although the sound surface is always unpredictable,
the deep structure of the piece comes through with surprising
clarity. The 24-hour period tracked in this piece always starts
and ends at midnight, and while there is often a general bell
curve of activity over the span of the piece, this is not always
the case, since many of the people willing to perform this piece
also tend to stay up very late. Tuttavia, with every realization of
this piece yet performed, the general form that results can be
described as a loose arch: initially establishing a nighttime tex-
ture, transitioning through gradual changes into the daylight
hours and then gradually returning to the nighttime texture
as the piece ends. The nighttime textures are often, but not
always, very sparse, largely silent or populated by drones.
the performers very concrete instructions to follow in prepar-
ing their parts and yet leaves these instructions open to the
possibility of creative listening. Coming together as a whole,
the activities of individual performers that seemed so isolated
and independent during the journal process come together to
create a statistical shape that reveals the connecting tissue of
society. It is also a great exemplar of what John Cage called the
“interpenetration and non-obstruction” of sounds, the ideal
state of being and allowing-to-be in his reading of anarchist
philosophy.
his Ph.D. in composition from the University of Minnesota. Much
of his work is oriented around composing relationships rather than
specific sounds—setting up situations in which performers follow
simple sets of rules to interact and produce an unpredictably complex
whole, structures without content. His principle teachers have included
Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, and Alex Lubet. Jensen
holds a teaching certificate through the Deep Listening Institute, E
has edited several books on Deep Listening. As well as directing the
Oklahoma Composers Association and the New Improv! Century En-
semble at the University of Oklahoma, he is an active performer with
journals Perspectives of New Music, Tempo, 1/1, the Musical
Times, and Cinema Journal.
pubLiC perforManCes
H2R 2G4 Canada. E-mail:
tilayered ongoing performance piece HMMM, made along
Toronto’s busy Queen St. In each HMMM, participants hum
for about 30 minutes on extended tones. Most are carrying
portable radios tuned to a broadcast of an earlier humming
session. The sound of these many voices humming is like that
of a sonic wash of soothing, organic tones across the urban
soundscape. Neighborhood merchants also participate by play-
ing the broadcast in their stores and restaurants, so that the
sound is enveloping and omnipresent and yet never loud in
any place. The audience strolls through, experiencing con-
stantly changing sonic mixes of vocal sound.
of weekly workshops of the same name, devoted to vocal im-
provisation and listening skills. Many ideas and exercises are
drawn from Deep Listening. A community was formed out of
a weekly practice of humming, used as a means of meditation,
of vocal warmup and of physical well-being. “Humming is like
massaging from the inside out” is how I like to describe it. IL
ears seem to benefit from humming; an overwhelming major-
ity of participants report their sense of hearing to be improved
after a session. This has also been the case in the street perfor-
mances, generally in a noisy urban environment in many Cana-
dian cities as well as Lima, Peru. The general noise level goes
down as passersby inevitably become curious enough to listen.
Participants learn to use humming as a means of echolocation,
to find themselves inside a sonically complex setting.
integrated with normal civic life. There is no visual spectacle,
and performers are not obvious, since humming is done with
the mouth closed. Anyone can join in with even the smallest
level of commitment. Some just listen; some match the notes
of others or hum in their own private universe. Citizens begin
to interact with each other on the basis of sonic, nonverbal
cues as opposed to the normal state of stasis from information
overload. The everyday sidewalk becomes transformed by mel-
low human sounds, and everyday life carries on just as before,
except perhaps a little slower and quieter as people begin to
listen critically. At its best, being in a HMMM feels like swim-
ming in a sea of vocal sounds.
my works. The body is an essential element, and the radio is
generally used to remind the audience of the natural range
and quality of sound diffusion. The radio expands the scope of
audio transmission but only to a degree that reminds us of the
natural limitations of physical space. There is usually a kind of
magic and wonder around the fact that certain bodies in the
piece are, Infatti, connected to other bodies some distance
away. Because I use many small sound sources, as opposed to
a central one, my use of radios is also strategically intended for
individual bodies, to be controlled individually. The radio is
generally used as an extension of the body, a bridge from one
ship with low-watt radio in how fragile and physical it is. Like
a voice, it is ultimately individualistic and subject to so many
kinds of suppression.
me to see through this long-term work, where making sound
and listening are integral parts of each other. The transcen-
dence we all strive for in art-making is definitely there in these
pieces. We are all making and tasting a beautiful mix together,
experiencing the physical world as a place of wonder and dis-
covery.
as well as in classical singing. Her art practice generally involves the
voice and issues of interface with technology, often using telephony or
radio transmission. She is also involved in community art and is a
founder of the digital media center for women in Canada, Studio XX,
as well as the innovative choral groups for women Choeur Maha and
Esther. Her large-scale sonic installation/performances for over 100
singers and radio, called “sonic choreographies,” have been performed
internationally, including at the inauguration of the Vancouver New
Public Library and at the Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Series. Ken-
nedy currently teaches electroacoustics and audio art at Concordia
University in Montreal. She frequently gives lectures and workshops on
listening skills, acoustic ecology and vocal improvisation. Her solo per-
formances include a high level of improvisation over lush soundtracks
of painstakingly mixed vocals and other sounds to create an immersive
world of different voices.
Composed by Paula Matthusen, 2007. Performed by members
of the Florida International University Laptop & Electronic
Arts (FLEA) Ensemble (Pedro De Faria, Erik DeLuca, Juan
Espinosa, Jaclyn Heyen, Daniel Lepervanche, Nayla Mehdi and
Jaime Reveles) and recorded by Erik DeLuca, 2009. (Public
domain.)
FL 33134 U.S.A. E-mail:
eled much like the Choose Your Own Adventure books. IL
ensemble travels down various “musical paths” in search of a
suitable ending. Multiple endings are possible. Some may be
intriguing, others sudden; still others are undesirable if not
dangerous. The performers must self-organize, interrupting
the navigation of the score, until agreeing upon a path. Each
musical choice is negotiated, forming a balance between co-
herence and surprise.
from a specific bank of samples described roughly as “drone,"
“instrumental,” “field recordings” and “rhythmic.” They then
process the samples using simple procedures that grow in com-
plexity over time as the group determines which musical path
they are following.
bert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center at Florida
International University by the FIU Laptop & Electronic Arts
(FLEA) Ensemble. This group has played lathyrus many times
and has developed their own internal language of various hand
signals as a way of communicating with one another while per-
forming the piece.
and is dedicated to them. The samples utilized in the per-
studies at the Studio für Klangkunst und Klangforschung at
the Universität der Künste—Berlin, made possible as part of a
Fulbright Fellowship. During that time, I had the great fortune
to work with and record a number of musicians. In particular,
I would like to thank Linda Buckley, Annika Handrock, James
Orsher and Daniella Strasfogel for their contribution to the
development of this piece by allowing me to record them and
use their samples for this piece. I would also like to thank Xe-
nia Helms, Keith O’Brien, and Tom O’Doherty for their con-
sistent feedback throughout the development of this work.
realizes sound installations. She has written for diverse instrumenta-
tions such as run-on sentence of the pavement for piano, Ping Pong
balls and electronics. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical
space—real, imagined and remembered. Her music has been performed
by Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE),
orchest de ereprijs, Ballett Frankfurt, noranewdanceco, Dither, Object
Collection, Kathryn Woodard, James Moore, Jody Redhage, and Todd
Reynolds. Her awards include a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton
Gould Young Composers’ Awards, First Prize in the Young Compos-
ers’ Meeting Composition Competition, the MacCracken and Langley
Ryan Fellowship and a Van Lier Fellowship. Matthusen has also held
residencies at create@iEar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, STEIM
and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Matthusen recently completed her
Ph.D. at New York University—GSAS and is now assistant professor
and Director of Music Technology at Florida International University.
Composed and performed by Monique Buzzarté
(trombone), Kristin Norderval (voice) and Viv Corringham
(voice). Recorded by Scot Gresham-Lancaster at The Sanctu-
ary for Independent Media in Troy, NY, SU 8 Giugno 2007, IL
first of three culminating Deep Listening Convergence con-
certs.
York, NY, 10034, U.S.A. E-mail:
site:
in February 2007, when Monique, Viv and Kristin—who were
all performing at the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and
Arts—spent a glorious time improvising in a parking garage
very late one night after a concert. As all three artists had also
been invited to join the Deep Listening Convergence residen-
cy in June that same year, they decided to form an ensemble
for that event and continue their improvisation.
York, Oslo and Minneapolis), so Skype was used for discussions
for the conception of the piece and for some of its rehearsals.
One initial concept was inspired by a statistic from Women
in Media. According to Women in Media, women own less
di 2% of the radio and television airwaves, and almost 90%
of “expert opinions” are voiced by males. In an early version
of Mouth Piece, in a deliberate attempt to explore and contrast
the role of vocalists (typically female) with the role of spokes-
persons used by the media to voice the viewpoints of a third
party (typically male), Monique played her trombone (a tradi-
tionally male instrument) by buzzing through a brass mouth-
piece, and Kristin and Viv vocalized sound bytes of statistics
from Women in Media through “mouthpieces” of various
types, some concrete and some abstract. In the final version
tions of the original title were obscured. What remained was a
newspaper—used as both a prop and a filter—and the subtext
for our improvisation, namely the political implications of pro-
jecting one’s own voice versus being a mouthpiece for those
in power.
missioning and premiering many new works for trombone alone, con
electronics, and in chamber ensembles. Buzzarté’s most recent record-
ing, Fluctuations with Ellen Fullman (Deep Listening 38), era
honored by The Wire magazine as one of their Top 50 Records of
2008, and in 2008 Meet the Composer also selected her as one of eight
“Soloist Champions” in recognition of her long history of commission-
ing and premiering new repertoire. Recent commissions included Subtle
Winds for the Downtown Ensemble’s Flexible Orchestra, Here Right
Now for the Telematic Circle, three ensembles geographically based in
Troy, NY, San Diego, CA and Stanford, CA, and Sub/veillance for the
Zanana live processing duo and video artist Katherine Liberovskaya
for the Electric Eyes: New Music and Media Festival in Minneapolis,
MN. Buzzarté has also developed a unique slide-mounted interface for
live processing, and her advocacy work for women in music includes
coordinating efforts that led to the admission of women members into
the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997. She performs in the elec-
troacoustic live processing chamber music duo Zanana with Kristin
Norderval. More information is at
premiered numerous new works for voice and presented original com-
positions incorporating voice, electronics and interactive technology
at festivals and concert houses in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Many works—including five chamber operas—have been written spe-
cifically for her. A number of these works have been recorded on Aurora,
CRI, Deep Listening, Eurydice, Koch International and New World
Records. Her own works are featured on Deep Listening and Koch
Internazionale. Norderval’s compositions include works for concert,
stage and film. A two-time recipient of the Norwegian Artist’s Stipend
and a 2005 recipient of the Henry Cowell Award from the American
Music Center, Norderval has also received support from the Jerome
Foundation, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks and RPI. Commissions
include works for Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen, the Bucharest
International Dance Festival in Romania, jill sigman/thinkdance in
New York City and the viol consort Parthenia. Norderval holds the
degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music,
Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, E
Bachelor of Music from the University of Washington. She performs
in the electroacoustic duo Zanana with Monique Buzzarté. More in-
formation at
who has worked internationally since the 1980s. Articles about her
work have appeared in Organised Sound (U.K.), Musicworks
(Canada), Playing with Words (U.K.) and For Those Who Have
Ears (Ireland). She received an MA Sonic Art with Distinction from
Middlesex University, England, and has had many awards, includ-
ing a 2006 McKnight Composer Fellowship. Recent work includes
installations and performances at Abrons Arts Center New York
Città, Meridian Gallery San Francisco, MCAD Gallery Minneapolis,
Galata-Perform Istanbul, Rochester Art Center Minnesota, Binaural
Artist Residency Portugal, Women in New Music Festival Los An-
geles, Soundworks Festival Ireland, Minnesota-Sur-Seine Festival St.
Paul, Strange Strolls Festival Australia, Placard Headphone Festival
London, Hearing Place Australia and Sound Art Museum Rome.
FM and Channel 4 TV, and in the U.S. on WFMU, WMSE, MPR
and NPR stations. More information at
Composed by Shannon Morrow, spring 2007. Performed by
Juditta Musette (voice and percussion), Jude Casseday (per-
cussion), Jay Cartwright (accordion), Wendy Spitzer (oboe),
Nicolette DeGroot (coconuts), Erin Bailey (saw), John Bar-
rile (cello), Steve Burnett (electric upright bass), Christopher
Thurston (double bass), Amy Wilkinson (bass clarinet), Su-
sanne Romey (bamboo flute) and Katherine Gill (violin). Re-
corded live in Durham Central Park in Durham, NC, by Joyce
Ventimiglia and Dan Overby, audio engineers, 28 settembre
2008.
NC 27701, U.S.A. E-mail:
cil, with funding from the state of North Carolina and the
National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great
nation deserves great art.
ideas that engaged participants in listening to their environ-
ments and interacting with nature. As a Deep Listener, I am
interested in fostering environmental awareness through the
listening sense gate.
folk artist Vollis Simpson’s Whirligig Farm in Wilson, NC. I was
transfixed by the towering scrap metal structures and sat like
an ant at the corner of the field watching the wind engage the
giant spinners in a variety of colorful performances.
installation model with which I am working is a series of light-
weight spinners installed in natural environments. Participants
(musicians currently) engage in the composition by listening
with presence in the environment and responding with sound
when the wind blows their assigned spinners. The Listening Gar-
den is an excerpt from a public performance of the Whirligig
Music Project. We were lucky to have gusty winds blow up at
performance time on an otherwise still day. There was the
possibility that we might have a truly environmental sound
performance that day if no wind blew the spinners. Although
I am interested in having an audience assemble for an hour
of listening to what there is to listen to, I was relieved that the
wind gave the performers the option of sharing their incred-
ible talents with our audience.
instigator or organizer of ideas and projects that bring people
together to relate creatively. As someone who has played music
with others for 17 years, I am always thrilled and fascinated by
what each individual brings to any musical experience. Most
of my favorite collaborations with other musicians or sound
artists have been less than well received, but are dear to my
heart because of the sincerity of the contributions each of us
offers up to the others. The Listening Garden excerpt is, to me,
beautiful and successful as a musical composition, but the true
strength of the project as an installation is that the architec-
ture imposed just enough structure to allow the participating
musicians to interact as desired based on their common ex-
perience of listening in the installation space. The aspect of
the spinners as conductors (bringing musicians in and out)
of those participating.
more information and comments from visitors to the site can
be found at my web site:
Her early training in visual art (BFA Painting 1992) inspires her
search for spontaneity and expressiveness in music and sound. She is
a percussionist, improviser, Soundpainter, Deep Listening Instructor
and rhythm circle facilitator. She is also a creative re-use visual artist.
Her current focus in visual art is using discarded materials to create
interactive installations in outdoor public spaces. She combines her
visual practice with her interest in sound, music and improvisation to
create a variety of multi-arts projects. She believes that the foundation
of sounding begins with the practice of listening. She is certified to lead
workshops in Deep Listening. In 2008 she received an Emerging Artists
grant from the Durham Arts Council to create The Whirligig Music
Project and The Listening Garden, a public art installation/musical
composition in Durham Central Park, Durham, NC. She also received
an Indy Arts Award for her work creating inclusive community-based
music experiences for musicians and non-musicians alike. Her cur-
rent musical projects include Triangle Soundpainting Orchestra (she
is founder, director and percussionist), and Scene of the Crime Rov-
ers rag-tag community street band (she is founder, first director and
percussionist).
Sound collage created from field recordings made of and with
grade-school children in the arctic region of Norway, under
the auspices of Musikk I Finnmark (MIF). Composed and re-
corded by Kristin Norderval, 2000.
Web sites:
ated from field recordings I made of and with grade-school
children in the arctic region of Norway in 2000, under the
auspices of Musikk I Finnmark (MIF). MIF had hired me to be
part of a school concert tour with a trio focusing on improvised
music. For one piece, I used binaural microphones mounted
to headphones, which various children tried out in turn. They
were asked to search for interesting sounds in their school,
and I followed them, literally connected to their ears with my
DAT player. The children both found and created sounds, Di-
ten commenting on what they were hearing. At each school I
would create quick loops from the field recordings with which
we improvised in concert after our explorations. At the end
of the entire project I selected some of my favorite sounds to
create this collage. Since it was recorded on binaural micro-
phones, listening on headphones is especially fun; it gives the
feeling of literally getting into the heads of the children who
were wearing the microphones.
toodaloo, toodaloo
look
look
look he hit
ha, ha, ha
do this
they look so mischievous
they’re looking for sounds
sounds?
ja, ja, hey
watch out, watch out
what’s happening?
can I borrow some sounds here?
ha, ha, ha
premiered numerous new works for voice and presented original com-
positions incorporating voice, electronics and interactive technology at
festivals and concert houses in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Many
works—including five chamber operas—have been written specifically
for her. A number of these works have been recorded on Aurora, CRI,
Deep Listening, Eurydice, Koch International, and New World Re-
cords. Her own works are featured on Deep Listening and Koch Inter-
national. Norderval’s compositions include works for concert, stage,
and film. A two-time recipient of the Norwegian Artist’s Stipend, E
UN 2005 recipient of the Henry Cowell Award from the American Music
Center, Norderval has also received support from the Jerome Foun-
dation, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks, and RPI. Commissions
include works for Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen, the Bucharest
International Dance Festival in Romania, jill sigman/thinkdance
in New York City, and the viol consort Parthenia. Kristin Norderval
holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music, UN
Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, E
a Bachelor of Music from the University of Washington. She performs
in the electro-acoustic duo Zanana with Monique Buzzarté. More in-
formation at
The lmj mIx
Composed by Elainie Lillios, 2009.
site:
sound and silence and their intersection in space while simul-
taneously merging my interests in Deep Listening and elec-
troacoustics.
of time, conveying different emotions and taking listeners on “sonic
journeys.” Influential mentors include Jonty Harrison, Pauline Oli-
veros, Larry Austin and Jon Christopher Nelson. Commissions from
ASCAP/SEAMUS, International Computer Music Association, IL
Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art, Réseaux, Kalama-
zoo Animation Festival International, LSU’s Center for Computation
and Technology, saxophonist Steve Duke and soprano Diane Ragains;
Grants from Ohio Arts Council, Ohio Board of Regents and National
Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts; Awards and recogni-
tion from CIMESP, Russolo and IMEB among others. Her music has
been presented internationally, including at guest invitations to the
GRM, Rien à Voir, festival l’espace du son, June in Buffalo and
Mountain Computer Music Festival. Lillios’s music is available on
the Empreintes DIGITALes, StudioPANaroma, La Muse en Circuit
and SEAMUS labels and on New Adventures in Sound Art’s Radio
Art Companion.
sions from all the space-faring nations, as well as private companies. In late 2008 the Indian Space Agency,
ISRO, launched the Chandrayaan 1 mission to the moon.
religion, art and science. A variety of cultures have generated rich narratives about the moon. The moon is
more than a mere object—it is also an image, an illusion, a picture. It inspires stories about lunacy as well as
love. It has regulated our lives in a fundamental way by catalyzing calendars based on its movement. Stories
of navigation are incomplete without the shadow presence of the moon.
ties. The moon also has a political significance—new space projects related to the moon by countries such
as Japan, China and India are fundamentally tied to the new articulations of what these countries are and
want to be.
entific trajectory in which the moon plays an important part even as it suggests new, contemporary reflections
on the moon. The section aims to publish articles from a variety of disciplines and hopes to receive articles
that explore various social and cultural aspects related to the moon as well as those that engage with the
relation between the moon and the artistic and scientific imaginations. Reflecting the universality of this
influence, we seek articles from countries and cultures throughout the world.
missions to the moon and collaborations between artists, scientists and engineers on moon projects.
U. S. UN. E-mail:
held in 2007, a collaboration of the National Institute for Advanced Studies, The Arts Catalyst, Leonardo/
OLATS and the Srishti School for Art, Design and Technology:
ests are in the areas of philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, postmodernism, phenomenology
and philosophy of art, drawing upon both Western and Indian traditions. His books include Translating
the World: Science and Language (University Press of America, 2002), Philosophy of Symmetry (IIAS, 2004) E
Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science (CSC, 2005). Currently he is professor and dean of the School of
Humanities and head of the Centre for Philosophy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Banga-
lore, India.
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