KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Sounds In Motion: Olympic Arts, (1984), 1 of 3
Digital Audio
Event Type
Interview and MusicOrigin
KUSC / KPFAIdentifier
SIM.1984.08.11.c2.AProgram Series
Sounds In MotionProgram Length
91 minPart
1 of 3Dates
1984-08-11 | broadcast| 402 | created
Description
A series of works produced by the Independent Composers Association of Los Angeles in cooperation with the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival. Composers were commissioned to create sound works for radio which could be transmitted during the period of the pre-Games Arts Festival in the Los Angeles area and nationally via American Public Radio. Gail Eichenthal introduces each segment, which also includes interviews and explanations by the composers.Part One features tape works by Paul Dresher & Joan La Barbara. San Francisco Bay Area composer Paul Dresher’s “Other Fire” contains field recordings made during his travels in India and Asia. The music portion of the piece features sounds processed through a harmonizer and delay system, and according to reviewer “Blue” Gene Tyranny, “maintains its mystery throughout with fascinating timbres and complex polyrhythmical combinations.” In “Time(d) Trials and Unscheduled Events,” Joan La Barbara utilizes vocal sounds which are inspired by athletes’ movements and sounds. According to the composer the work: “was conceived as a sonic animation based on filmed motion studies of Olympic athletes in action: long distance runners, the pacer overtaken by a sprinter, fancy divers, swimmers, shot-putters, weight-lifters and so on. I created the kind of sounds made by these athletes in action and blended these with sonic gestures inspired by these moving images. The entire work consists of eight layers of my voice on tape, with no processing used to change the sounds of the voice. the ‘extended’ techniques used here include ‘multiphonics’ (the simultaneous singing of several distinct pitches), resonance and overtone focusing and circular singing.
Part Two features works by Charles Amirkhanian and Pauline Oliveros. In “Gold and Spirit” Amirkhanian collected sounds from numerous Bay Area athletic venues, often featuring fairly obscure sports, and formed a collage of them in the multi-track studio with “art” cheers of his own devising. In “Open Circuits,” Oliveros uses simple analog electronic techniques to create a meditative sound design of special luxuriance.
Part Three features “Se Jong,” an electro-acoustic composition by Carl Stone, inspired by the church bells of Utrecht. In this realization the acoustic bells are modulated with digital delay. The final 15 minutes of this segment also includes additional interviews with all the featured composers of the series.
Genres
New musicElectro-Acoustic / Electronic
Musical Selections
Other Fire, electronics and ambient recordings (1984) (12:27) / Paul Dresher -- Time(d) Trials and Unscheduled Events, for taped vocalises (1984) (11:41) / Joan La BarbaraPerformers
Joan La Barbara, vocals (Time)Subjects
New musicOlympics -- Songs and music
Field recordings
Electronic music
Vocalises