Cascone vs. Oliveros, reprise

[extra247@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Finally replying to this:

anechoic wrote:

.... this microscopic mode (via new perceptual apparatus) of listening is vastly different to waht Oliveros alludes to .. it's a 'fast brain' mode of listening whihc is needed to succesfully navigate the information rich/overloaded/quick cut/simulcare/reality TV mediascape we're immersed in .. deep listening a la Oliveros is an attempt to seprate the signifier from the signified (or listening from categorising) 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, commercials, 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 ...

Digital CutUp Lounge wrote:

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 micro-sound 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 ...

EXTA writes:

I agree. Microsound music and deep listening / conventional ambient aren't mutually exclusive - either in composition, or in the required mode of listening. For example: 

listening: ryoji ikeda's electronic minimalism and long sustained tones are a deliberate creative response to information overload in the outside world. 95% of Matrix and +/- is missed if one listens in 'fast brain mode' or goes for 'speed listening'. Ikeda is an immersive experience, both on record and especially live. It's interesting to see that under his own name, Ikeda also makes conventional ambient music (Moon, on Touch records). 

composition: shuttle358 combines the classic microsound snap/crackle/pop linearity with enveloping drones, ambient tones and drift, using the first to explore and illuminate the second. You can hear clear stylistic links in his work not just to Oliveros, but also to old ambient types like Tetsu Inoue. 

Ambient music as traditionally understood is supposed to be both foreground and background. As such, it actually bridges the gap between 'soft focus new age listening' and 'fast brain' electronica - rather than opening up conceptual space between them.

To argue these musical ideas - microsound, deep listening and ambient - don't go together doesn't do justice to the content of the music. I'd suggest it has more power as a political statement about the microsound establishing space for itself - or as a comment on how hard it is for most of us to find time simply to listen these days. 



EXTRA
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www.slowsound.net



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