Browse by Artist: BLOCK, OLIVIA

Artist:	BLOCK, OLIVIA
Title:	Pure Gaze
Label:	SEDIMENTAL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SED 026CD

"Block is an electro-acoustic and modern instrumental composer whose recorded compositions combine layered, processed wind and string instruments with processed sound from sections of field recordings she has collected from various natural landscapes. Her performances include minimalistic scored musical sections played live by a quintet accompanied by taped material, often sounds of field recordings, or the same quintet previously recorded and electronically manipulated. Block herself 'plays' found objects and instruments (trumpet). The resulting surrealistic sonic landscapes and the contrast between elements create a paradoxical element to her work. In all of her recent works she emphasizes comparisons between organic or 'real' sounds and electronic ones, and she demonstrates how electronic technology imitates natural evolution using similar sounds from both worlds. She also explores the difference between 'sound' and 'music' and the creation of experience through emotional, subjective or intellectual, objective means."

Artist:	BLOCK, OLIVIA
Title:	Mobius Fuse
Label:	SEDIMENTAL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SED 031CD

" Olivia Block is a contemporary composer who combines field recordings, scored segments for acoustic instruments, and electronically generated sound. Her recorded work seeks to introduce, set at play, and ultimately reconcile nature with artifice in the realms of music and sound. In the process, 'organic' sound becomes subtly processed, digitized and abstracted; 'inorganic' sound becomes self-replicating and animate; and 'musical' elements such as chamber instruments are de familiarized from their traditional associations, freeing them to participate in the larger aesthetic possibilities of sound. Her pieces are composed over long periods of time in numerous stages. She often prepares elaborate tape installations in natural sites for field recording sessions which she later integrates into her recorded compositions. In live performance, Block introduces additional elements of paradox and tension: chamber musicians perform scores which accompany pre-prepared tape material, and improvisers (often including herself) interact with 'lo-fi' speaker installations and digital recordings."

Artist:	BLOCK, OLIVIA
Title:	Heave To
Label:	SEDIMENTAL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SED 044CD

"Olivia Block's Heave To is her fourth full release under her own name (her first two are on Sedimental, the most recent on Jason Kahn's Cut label) and marks both a new maturity in her compositional prowess and also a new confidence. Heave To, a composition in three movements, is an investigation into the deep structures of maelstroms. A roiling mixture of crashing waves and wind, jagged strings, clanging metal, complex electronic textures, and clusters of chamber instruments. In our opinion, this is her strongest work since her debut, Pure Gaze. Olivia Block is a contemporary composer and sound artist who combines field recordings, scored segments for acoustic instruments, and electronically generated sound. Her recorded work seeks to introduce, set at play, and ultimately reconcile nature with artifice in the realms of music and sound. In the process, 'organic' sound becomes subtly processed, digitized and abstracted; 'inorganic' sound becomes self-replicating and animate; and 'musical' elements such as chamber instruments are defamiliarized from their traditional associations, freeing them to participate in the larger aesthetic possibilities of sound."

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