Band all about self exploration

"What sound makes you feel creative?...What sound makes you feel peaceful?...What sound has a healing effect?...What sound would you make if you could make any sound?" Professor of Composition Pauline Oliveros asks these questions to visitors of her "Deep Listening Through the Millennium" web page. In a subtle way she asks the same questions about the nature of sound and our experiences with it in her performances as a member of Deep Listening Band.

Deep Listening Band (or DLB) is in residence at Oberlin March 9-15, and encourages listeners to observe closely their own listening processes and to find new ways of listening without imposing any specific "right" way to listen. The emphasis is on exploring questions, not producing universal answers. In contrast to traditional concerts based on strict divisions between composer and audience, music and noise, their concerts create a shared experience where everyone is invited to become a "deep listener," observing everything in the surrounding environment.

Oliveros is a legend in post-war American music. A major figure in the avant-garde since the 60s, her work has focused on exploring sound and artistic expression using improvisation, technology, myth, ritual and meditation. The result is often highly personal and spiritual, as in Epigraphs in the Time of AIDS, a piece performed by DLB on their CD Suspended Music.

Oliveros's accomplishments are too abundant to list, but they include numerous commissions (most recently from the Paula Josa Jones Dance Makers and the Fromm Foundation), at least 17 recordings, three books, and the 1999 Award for Lifetime Achievement given by SEAMUS, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. Of her greatest accomplishments was founding the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the arts and based on the philosophy that "creativity is the vital spirit of personal and public growth."

The group now known as Deep Listening Band began in 1988 when Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, and Panaiotis recorded the CD Deep Listening in a large underground cistern in Washington. Inspired by their exploration of this unique sound environment, the group decided to continue working together. The artists who currently make up the group are OIiveros (accordion and electronics), Dempster (trombone and dijeridu), David Gamper (keyboards and electronics) and Bob Bielecki (sound designer). The band has released seven CDs and performed in such unusual places as Limestone Cave in Rosendale, N.Y. and a cave in the Canary Islands.

DLB does not play notated music. Their compositions are structures in which the performers are free to create their own sounds in response to the physical space, the audience, ambient sounds or the other musicians. All the sounds originate from acoustic instruments, but they may be processed by the Extended Instrument System. This system, developed by David Gamper, allows performers to transform the sounds of their instruments with delay, layering, spatial placement and other effects.

Despite this sophisticated technology, the essence of DLB is the human interaction among the audience at a particular performance. Every performance is different, shaped by the audience and the physical surroundings. The music can be playful or serious, peaceful or active. Listeners do not need traditional musical education to enjoy their concerts, but DLB does ask for a commitment to listening carefully, developing an open mind and open ears, and discovering the joy of sound.

Deep Listening Band will perform at the Cat in the Cream on Sunday, March 14 (sets at 6:30 and 8 p.m.) and on www.hereandnow.net on Friday, March 12 (8-10 p.m.). "Here and Now" broadcasts live, 24 hours a day, from the living room of a house in town. DLB will be joined on Friday by Hugh Ragin, professor of jazz studies, on trumpet.