lowercase Sounds

 

Steve Roden was a visual artist (painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video). His sound installations & art performances had led him into the world of music. He is one of the progenitors of "lowercase" music, active in music since the mid 80s. In the 90s he released music under the project name In Be Tween Noise.

Lowercase music is a hyper-minimalist genre of ambient experimental music that emphasizes extremely quiet, subtle sounds. Lowercase musicians manipulate & amplify field recordings of tiny, often overlooked noises to create ambient music that must be "discovered" to fully grasp the sense of quiet, humility, & beauty in their works. This music might imply one thing on the surface but contain other things beneath.

 

He has collaborated with Franscisco López, Jason Kahn, Machinefabriek, Brandon LaBelle, Stephen Vitiello,  Bernhard Günter, & many others. Here is one with LaBelle... 

 

                   Steve Roden & Brandon LaBelle - The House was Quiet & the World was Calm,                         Meme meme014CD, 1999.
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A Torn Element    
Within the Clearest Stem    
The Quiet Mist Drones    
Raw Star Calm    
Water Messiah    
Shoe Steam Drowns    
Soon has He    
The Alm Die    
A Hidden Hour    
With Calmer Word    
Drawn Low Material
Wood Hiss

  
 

Roden's 2001 release Forms of Paper brought attention to the term "lowercase", which at the time united a wide variety of practitioners exploring silence & quiet, from lap top musicians to electroacoustic artists to free jazz. It was originally created for the "Art in the Libraries Exhibition", installation in the Frank Gehry designed Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in August, 2001. The idea for the composition was the quiet space of the library as a major consideration. At the Library it was amplified at a very low volume level. All of the sounds in the composition are the sounds of book pages being handled.

 Steve Roden - Forms of Paper, Line LINE_007, 2001.

Forms of Paper

 

  

A moment of quietude, as Roden died in September 2023.

At one with my surroundings,
NØ