The Deep Listening Band (DLB) was founded in 1988 by

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...

(

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, "expanded instrument system",

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

Stuart Dempster Stuart Dempster (born July 7, 1936 in Berkeley, California) is a trombonist, didjeridu player, improviser, and composer. Biography After Dempster completed his studies at San Francisco State College, he was appointed assistant professor at th ...

(

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

didjeridu The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

, composition) and

Panaiotis Panaiotis, also known as Peter Ward, is an American vocalist and composer, currently living in Albuquerque. He received his Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory and a Ph.D. in music from the University of California, San Diego. ...

(

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, electronics, composer). David Gamper (keyboards, electronics) replaced Panaiotis in 1990. The band is named after Oliveros' term, concept, program and registered servicemark of the Deep Listening Institute, Ltd., ''Deep Listening'', and specializes in performing and recording in

resonant Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

erant spaces such as

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

s and huge underground

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s including the

Fort Worden Fort Worden Historical State Park is located in Port Townsend, Washington, on originally known as Fort Worden, a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps base constructed to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea. Fort Worden was named after U ...

Cistern which has a 45-second reverberation time.

Milestones and collaborations

Deep Listening Band recorded its first, self titled album at Fort Worden Cistern in Port Townsend, WA on October 8, 1988. Al Swanson is credited with the on location recording, while Swanson and Dempster collaborated in editing the recording in December 1988. The initial name ''"The Deep Listening Band"'' and the corresponding initialism ''"DLB"'' were coined during the winter of 1988/1989. In 1991 the name became ''"Deep Listening Band"'', without a ''"The"''.Adapted from the ''Deep Listening Band Chronology'' by Stuart Dempster; see external links. DLB collaborated with

Ellen Fullman Ellen Fullman (born 1957) is an American composer, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is known for her 70-foot (21-meter) Long String instrument, tu ...

and her Long String Instrument resulting in the ''Suspended Music'' release by Periplum Records in 1993. The band also performed, recorded, and released a

trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

's '' 4'33"''. ''Non Stop Flight'', a 70-minute excerpt from the 4 hours and 33' trope recorded in September 1996 at the

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

concert hall, was released by Music & Arts. ''Unquenchable Fire'' with the

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is ...

Quartet, inspired by the novel of the same name, was released on the Deep Listening Label in 2003. The same year saw the release ''Deep Time'' featuring Swiss experimental percussionist

Fritz Hauser Fritz Hauser is a Swiss musician and composer from Basel, Switzerland. Principal compositions *On Time and Space (for 50 cymbals) *Die Klippe (for marimba and 3 cymbals) *Der Pendler (for drum kit) *Le souvenir (for 4 snare drums, 2 tr ...

as special guest.Releases sourced through th
''Deep Listening Institute Catalog''
and th
''Deep Listening Band Discography''
on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

. In 2008 DLB celebrated 20 years with a series of events beginning in August at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

as part of New Albion Records’ 25th Anniversary. The bands anniversary celebrations culminated in a performance on October 24, 2008 at Roulette (Location 1) in NYC. On the same day Taiga Records released the double LP ''Then & Now, Now & Then'', a compilation of mostly unreleased recording excerpts from 1990 to 2006. The performance at Roulette and the performance a
Big Twig Studio
in the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

on the following day were presented as part o
IONE’s 13th Annual Dream Festival
While 2011 was a highly productive year for DLB, it also marked the tragic loss of long time band member David Gamper in September. Supported by Matt Turner (e-cello), Rebecca Salzer, Jeff Wallace (movement), members of IGLU (Improvisation Group at Lawrence University), Larry Darling (sound) and Jillian Johnson (administration) DLB dedicated the October 29, 2011 performance at

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducation ...

Appleton, WI Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the cou ...

to the memory of David Gamper. As a tribute to Gamper DLB released three albums featuring the long time trio Dempster, Gamper and Oliveros: ''Octagonal Polyphony'' (Important Records, vinyl), ''Great Howl at Town Hall'' (Important Records, CD) and ''Needle Drop Jungle'' (Taiga Records, vinyl). The band celebrated its 25th anniversary with a weeklong residency culminating in a concert at the Dunrobin Sonic Gym in Ontario, Canada in October 2013. On this occasion the band employed the Cistern Simulation Technology, a simulation of the Fort Worden Cistern acoustics, developed by Jonas Braasch, Director of the Center for Cognition, Communication, and Culture at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

. Both residency and concert featured founding members Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster as well as special guests Jonas Braasch (saxophone), Jesse Stewart (percussion, sonic artifacts) and Johannes Welsch (gongs). The concert, which opened with an invocation b
IONE
(author, playwright, director), was recorded by Braasch and Welsch, and released by Deep Listening as ''Dunrobin Sonic Gems'' on October 8, 2014, marking the 26th anniversary of the seminal Fort Worden Cistern recording. On this occasion DLB also released "Johina", an excerpt from the soundcheck preceding the concert, as a standalone composition for download.Sourced through th
Dunrobin Sonic Gems Music Press Kit
which includes the official October 2nd, 2014 press release.

Discography

* 2014: ''Dunrobin Sonic Gems'' with IONE, Jonas Braasch, Jesse Stewart and Johannes Welsch * 2013: ''Looking Back'' with

and

Randy Raine-Reusch Randy Raine-Reusch (born 1952) is a Canadian composer, performer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist specializing in New and Experimental Music for instruments from around the world, particularly those from East and Southeast Asia. Research ...

* 2012: ''Octagonal Polyphony'' * 2012: ''Great Howl at Town Haul'' * 2012: ''Needle Drop Jungle'' * 2008: ''Then & Now, Now & Then'' (double LP) * 2003: ''Deep Time'' with

* 2003: ''Unquenchable Fire'' with

Quartet * 1998: ''Non Stop Flight'' (live album) * 1995: ''Sanctuary'' * 1995: ''Tosca Salad'' * 1993: ''Suspended Music'' * 1991: ''The Ready Made Boomerang'' * 1990: ''Troglodyte's Delight'' * 1989: ''Deep Listening''

External links

Official site

DLB History by Stuart Dempster

DLB Chronology by Stuart Dempster

References

{{Authority control American experimental musical groups Contemporary classical music ensembles American musical trios