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.

While Pauline Oliveros' output has its high and low marks, the composer, accordionist and organizer is an undeniable force in new music. For fifty years she has pursued sonic experiments, and as the founder of the Deep Listening Institute, she has supported many other sound innovators. Sadly, it's sometimes easier to respect her from afar than to closely follow her work. Her choices in collaborators can get in the way, and they often seem to be made out social or political sympathies as much as musical ones. But there are gems within her catalogue, such as Troglodyte's Delight (1990) with her Deep Listening Band or the early tape experiments on Alien Bog and Beautiful Soop (1997). Her 1998 release The Roots of the Moment, just reissued by Hatology, is among those essentials. Essentially a solo recording, Oliveros and her accordion are found here within an electronic environment created by Peter Ward. The electronic element isn't explained in the liner notes (written by her neighbor, saxophonist Joe McPhee, with whom she's collaborated), and its presence seems subtle on the recording. Reverb and delay may be present at times, but it might be best just to assume they're there.

"Oliveros's music makes you listen afresh to the simplest sounds." - NEW YORK TIMES

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 mediatating, rather each piece is a form of mediation, 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 Franicsco Tape Music Center(along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the electronic music resource on the US Wesst Coast during the 1960s. The center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and it is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. In her performances and recordings, Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed.

This CD presents ten interesting works, in diverse styles, by as many composers. Pauline Oliveros' Poem of Change (1992) is a powerful and thoughtful piece for evocative sound effects, voice and accordion. Nurit Tilles' Raw Silk (A Rag) (1994), is an alternatively sultry and light-hearted virtuosic piano work. Linda Montano's mysterious Portrait of Sappho (1997) is written for voice, low drum and piano. Lori Freedman and Marilyn Lerner's Barbie's Other Shoe (1997) is a lively and jazzy work. Paula Kimper's lyrical and operatic I Want To Live is taken from Patience & Sarah (1997). Eve Beglarian's Wolf Chaser (1995) is a truly innovative work, full of rich and intriguing timbres for violin, wolf chaser, percussion and electronics. Jennifer Higdon's running the edgE (1996) is a wildly energetic ensemble work. Annea Lockwood's I Give You Back (1993) is a moving solo for soprano. Madelyn Byrne's computer music composition Winter (1997) is rich in imagery and mystery. The last work is Ruth Anderson's sound collage SUM (State of the Union Message) (1973 /revised 1997). In the liner notes, the various composers discuss their thoughts about participating in this collection, as well as the musical ideas of the compositions.
Some people ask why "Lesbian American" should be used as a designation, but after centuries of musical dictionaires like Men in Music and the Great Composers (i.e., male, European) some alternative emphasis certainly seems long overdue; but more than that, we now live in a multi-cultural, and multi-everything else world, and, to quote from the album's liner notes "As beautiful, strong and diverse as the voices of women in America today, the music of these ten lesbian American composers speaks to the heart, soul and conscience of our times." So, in answer to the question "Why?": "Why Not?".

Live electronic/spoken word performance recording. Recorded at New York Live Arts, Live Ideas Festival 2015. Mastered at Enisslab Studio, Rome.

by "Blue" Gene Tyranny
This is a good example of Oliveros' earlier electronic music using a configuration of tape recorders patched into each other with magnetic tape spliced in loops so that a form of "automatic generation" system was created by feedback. Similar to Richard Maxfield, Oliveros used bias frequencies of tape recorders and difference, or lower "ghost tones" produced by the interference of very high frequencies.

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.

Dense 12 disc retrospective 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.

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.