Pauline Oliveros & Miya Masaoka - Koto Accordion

"Listening to this recording session I am lifted to a world both evanescent
and yet somehow connected to a distinct culture of music making in the 21st
centuryŠ" (Miya Masaoka)

Though an unlikely combination - accordion and koto - it is not so much
about the instruments as about the energies of the music that comes from the
intensity of listening - listening as close to "now" as possible. We know
that our consciousness is delayed by a fraction of a second that the brain
interprets as now - however the body is instantaneous in its perception.
Thus the phenomena of playing and becoming conscious of what has played -
been played - is a continually surprising experience in such improvisation.
­ Pauline Oliveros

Improvisation has a way of being new but endowed with moments of
familiarity, somehow encapsulating the essence of the New, and
simultaneously forming a variation and posing another path, an alternativeŠ
Improvisation embodies the paradox of the familiar yet also retains aspects
of musically formal relationships. Improvisation speaks to spontaneity and
yet breathes a conscious design of variation that is endlessly different as
each moment is different from the past, even within static areas.  Perhaps
what is necessary to create this music, and what I am trying to describe in
the post-production experience harkens to the complete listening of the
sonic experience-- or sonic awareness, that is, the ability to focus
attention upon both environment and musical sound, a concept that Pauline
had introduced in the early 1980¹s. ­ Miya Masaoka

Miya Masaoka, musician, composer, performance artist, has created works for
koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles,
chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has
investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological
responses of plants, the human brain, and her own body. Within these varied
contexts of sound, music and nature, her performance work emphasizes the
interactive, live nature of improvisation, and reflects an individual,
contemporary expression of Japanese gagaku aural gesturalism. Masaoka's work
has been presented in Japan, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe and she has
toured to India six times.

Pauline Oliveros's life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about
opening her own and others' sensibilities it the many facets of sound. Since
the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work
with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many
credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of
Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and
improvisational skills. She has been celebrated worldwide. During the 1960's
John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the most
significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the U.S. at the
World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with a
retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington D.C.: the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the
American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York: In 2000 the
50th anniversary of her work was celebrated with the commissioning and
performance of her Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_tunes. Oliveros work is
available on numerous recordings produced by companies internationally.

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