The first 200 copies of this limited vinyl-only, packaged in handmade copper colored letterpress jackets. Important Records is quite pleased to be presenting this split release consisting of two new drone works from Pauline Oliveros and Eleh. Oliveros, an early American minimalist who has pioneered the technique of Deep Listening, has created a new work exlcusively for this release. Drifting Depths is a new improvised piece made on a harmonica being processed through Pauline's Expanded Instrument System. Eleh's side, also exclusive to this vinyl-only release, is a super slow melodic drone full of stillness, tension & relief.
A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. west coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recording.
Eleh was formed to specifically to pay tribute to early experimental minimalist pioneers especially La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros and Charlemagne Palestine. Using an enormous vintage modular analog synthesizer, a battery of glowing HP tube test oscillators and occasionally guitar/piano, Eleh creates highly minimal and deeply spiritual pure analog drone music with emphasis on the physical ultra-low end. Incorporating tones as low as .05 Hz (well below the range of human hearing). Eleh is as much of a physical experience as it is an audio one. This engaging record was created as a tool for meditation and to be heard/felt correctly the listener must be sitting with ears at speaker height at least 7 feet away from the speakers. Volume reveals detail.
Avant-garde artist Pauline Oliveros has been interested in the concept of "deep listening" for much of her lengthy career, aiming her music toward raising consciousness by creating meditative musical experiences with the help of digital manipulation, drones, patterns, and silence. The electronica group Eleh shares similar concerns, and on this collaborative effort Oliveros and Eleh lead the listener on a journey through textures designed to transport and transfigure. This set is challenging, as well as quite beautiful, and comes recommended to fans of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, and other ambient/experimental composers.