[microsound] Cascone vs Oliveros

[Digital Cutup Lounge <johnvon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Replying to something Kim Cascone wrote a long time ago (I'm finally catching
up on all the messages in this list)...

anechoic wrote:

> ...this
> microscopic mode (via new perceptual apparatus) of listening is vastly
> different than what Oliveros alludes to...it's a "fast brain" mode of
> listening which is needed to succesfully navigate the information
> rich/overloaded/quick cut/simulacre/realityTV mediascape we're immersed
> in...deep listening ala Oliveros is an attempt to separate the signifier
> from the signified (or listening from categorizing) and is an anachronistic
> mode of listening that doesn't work with electronica...electronica operates
> on fast production and consumption cycles and "speed listening" is how one
> tends to ingest it: as sound-bites, needle drops and
> wallpaper...soundtracks, commericials, on tv, layered, beat-matched and
> mixed into dancefloors, during the daily commute, in a store while
> shopping, while at work, while online, etc..today we absorb information via
> viral transmission not via soft focus new-age listening...

Given what you're arguing here -- that Oliveros' mode of listening is the
polar opposite of that implied by electronica/microsound music -- it's
interesting to reflect that her music has frequently explored microsound-style
ideas. For example, those Deep Listening recordings, done in some kind of
subterranean cistern with a cavernous sustaining reverb -- I remember hearing
a recording of that band in a documentary video once, long sustaining
gradually morphing shifting sonic combinations generated by accordion,
trombone, and voice (as I recall).

I have some recordings of this music and I often mix Oliveros' slowly evolving
ambient textures into my DJ sets on top of them minimal techno micro house
nano groove beats...

John
np: stewart walker - lake walking

--
John von Seggern
DJ/producer
Digital Cutup Lounge
Hong Kong

http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com