deep listening

[tpphilli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hello All,

I am a bit late to some of the issues that have piqued my curiosity here (a friend was kind enough to give me old printouts) but they are no less relevant now than they were a month ago.So:

Kim, you made some interesting comments last month about different modes of listening that prompt a question I don't believe has been addressed in subsequent entries. Can you be more specific about what you mean by a "new perceptual apparatus?" I understand the (perhaps inevitable) accomodation to the context of contemporary culture, but what is the psychology of this apparatus? I ask because psychology (ie. psychological development) would seem to be at the heart of Oliveros' brand of "deep listening," which you dismiss as irrelevant to the experience of listening to electronica (I assume that you would include microsound here?). On the contrary, one of the joys of microsound for me personally is the fact that it compels a heightened level of attention that includes sound beyond what is coming from the speakers. And this experience often extends beyond the final track. In short, microsound has the capacity to transform listening in general (as you imply in reference to the sp!
eed and t
echno-frenzy of modern life) and this is, at least in part, a psychological phenomenon. And it can be a very pleasurable phenomenon, in my opinion. However, in your desire to highlight listening for process/joke/consumer conspiracy (which, I certainly agree is necessary in the information age), you seem to neglect such pleasure.

I am not so sure, then, that this pleasurable function of microsound is so different from the "soft focus" listening put forth by Oliveros, regardless of my knowledge of the recording processes. Seen in this light, microsound is less a source for "viral transmission" and more an experience that the listener chooses more or less consciously, an experience that can promote, well, deeper listening. I emphasize the intention of the microsound listener in order to distinguish the creative efforts of the artist (that earn our attention) from the barrage of consumerism's endless noise (though the latter, too, can provide us with the pleasure of transformed listening).

I realize that some of this runs dangerously close to the dreaded new age sensibility. A healthy dose of po mo theory is usually an effective antidote, though I see no harm in locating music in a larger framework of individuation, for lack of a better word. 

Kim, I respect your music and your insights on the list and would appreciate comments from you or anyone else. 

Take care all,

Thomas!