Pauline Oliveros

 

In the documentary film „Sisters with Transistors” (2020) Oliveros recalls how she first started to record sounds from outside her apartment window with a tape recorder (26min) The tape recorder itself offered her experimental freedom by not only comprising the opportunity to record sounds, but rewind the tape within the process (26:05 min). Later, the San Francisco Tape Music Center (SFTMC) was founded by Oliveros and a group of friends, united by the aim to bring material together and create a non-institutionalized space for artists to create. However, Oliveros focused on live performances. She developed a tape delay system that enabled her to introduce the tape machine to live performances. In addition to that Oliveros focused on the status of woman in the sphere of musicians and composers, repetitiously uttering her disapproval of the perception of woman in art. She did so, not only by her sheer appearance as a non-compliant figure in the business but through revolutionary feminist writing and statements. Neither did she wanted to be called a “lady” composer (which was common practice at the time) nor would she accept the lack of sobriety with which female composers were confronted at the time (28:50 min). Instead, she asked for a change of consciousness and emphasizes the necessity to introduce music by woman and people of color into teaching practices (50:40 min).

Due to her interest in sound production and manipulation, Oliveros eventually developed a large interest in the act of listening itself and thus paid particular attention to internal processes induced by the tonal input she receives. Consequently, she preoccupied herself with act of hearing and feeling sounds. Her focus thereby shifted to one´s experience and interaction with the surrounding world. Like Lucier, Oliveros work is closely related to the perception and awareness of space and its influence on sound production and reception within. The term Deep Listening as a principle of paying close and continuous attention in a process of listening that is determined by the awareness of all surrounding sounds was coined. By focusing on the process of listening, Oliveros also focusses on the members of the audience. What she essentially calls for is to not only hear but listen to the sounds one is surrounded by. She thereby invites the members of the audience to become active participants of a performance through their own listening practice and experience.

The recordings featured on Deep Listening (such as Lear) do perfectly illustrate Oliveros way to work and interact with sounds. Due to the circumstances under which the recordings originated and the techniques used (e.g. 45 sec reverb decay that is immanent to the specific environment), one slowly gets a sense of how Oliveros was able to produce a record evoking such an epic and preternatural atmosphere back in 1989, when Deep Listening was first released.  Especially Lear features an everchanging set of harmonies compiled by (-what I would identify as-) Oliveros accordion, a didgeridoo, and another wind instrument that I fail to identify.  The length of the tones and the slow shift in volume and timbre with a slight medieval touch do nonetheless promote a sense of mytho-historical battleground aesthetic that (although perfectly corresponding with the title of the piece) I find rather distractive, so that I can not help but feel a sense of relief as the whole piece seemingly transforms back into a Sci-Fi scenery after roughly 18 minutes.

 

[each sentence followed by minutes in brackets hints at indirect quotations uttered by Pauline Olivieros herself or the narrative team featured in the documentary “Siters with Transistors” (2020) directed by Lisa Rovner which can be accessed for example on vimeo or via the arte.tv media library. Further information on the artists mentioned is also available on the eponymous website: https://sisterswithtransistors.com/]