Pauline Oliveros – Deep Listening

Pauline Oliveros – Deep Listening
“Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears,” said American experimental composer Pauline Oliveros. She became obsessed with mindfulness through “deep listening”, a term she coined in 1988 after descending four metres into a disused water tank to make a recording of the same name. The underground room had an acoustic resonance lasting 45 seconds, allowing the musicians to create a smooth overlapping texture by listening carefully to each other. The album Deep Listening presents four pieces conceived as an aid to mindful focus. Choose one of them, concentrate on the constant drone of the didgeridoo, then become aware of the slowly evolving sounds of accordion and voice as they expand and contract around it. Purge your mind of clutter as you focus on this swirling soundscape, allowing the melodic trombone line to order your thinking.