The Great Liberation Through Hearing (1995) is scored for amplified, just-tuned string quartet and digitally
transformed human voice. Generated from a phonetic analysis of the names of Buddhist deities described
in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the piece explores connections between Eastern mantric science and
Western linguistic structuralism. It brings together the compositional linguistics of Kenneth Gaburo and
the intonational theories of Harry Partch through two simultaneous mappings of the analysis, creating a
kind of conceptual heterophony. This recording captures Apartment House’s world premiere, 26 years
after the work was composed.

David Dunn is a composer, sound artist, performer, and audio engineer. While he has worked in a wide variety of audio media, inclusive of traditional and experimental music, installations for public exhibitions, video/film soundtracks, and bioacoustics research, he primarily engages in site-specific interactions or various research-oriented activities. Much of his work is focused upon the development of listening strategies and technologies for environmental sound monitoring in both aesthetic and scientific contexts. As a pioneer in the fields of acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, interspecies communication, and scientific sonification, he has contributed to projects as diverse as sensory enhancement of healthcare environments, intervention strategies for forest and agricultural pests, reduction of sensory deprivation problems in captive animals, and research into cetacean communication. His work also represents some of the earliest experimental sound art to explore a sonic equivalent to the site-specific land art of the 1970s. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.