Paula P-Orridge (born Paula Jean Brooking, 23 February 1963), also known as Alaura O'Dell, is an English musician, writer, and entrepreneur.
Career
P-Orridge's musical career began in 1979 when she met musician and artist
Genesis P-Orridge while working at a
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
supermarket in
Hackney, East London.
Prior to meeting Genesis she had had some connection to the
Industrial Records
Industrial Records is a record label established in 1976 by industrial music and visual arts group Throbbing Gristle. The group created the label primarily for self-releases but also signed several other groups and artists. The label gave a n ...
music scene and had performed onstage with band
23 Skidoo. Genesis was a member of seminal band
Throbbing Gristle, an originator of
industrial music and an influential figure in the development of
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
and
electronica. Prior to Throbbing Gristle's last show, Paula married Genesis in
; they had two daughters, Caresse and Genesse.
1980s
Paula joined Genesis's band
Psychic TV in 1983, playing drums
[Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 466] and creating
sound collage
In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage. This is often done throu ...
s. She was also responsible for running the
mail order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing ...
section of
Temple Records, and at times acted as Psychic TV's
tour manager
A tour manager (or concert tour manager) is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues (a concert tour). In general, road managers handle tour deta ...
and record company liaison.
1990s
In the early 1990s, Paula and Genesis left the United Kingdom to live in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
and the United States in a
self-imposed exile, during which the couple divorced.
In 1995 while in the United States, Paula released a solo
ambient music and
spoken word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...
album, ''Sacred Dreams'', on the San Francisco-based record label, Silent Records. ''Sacred Dreams'' differed significantly from her previous work and she released the album under her new name of Alaura O'Dell.
The ''Sacred Dreams'' album was
recorded in December 1994 in collaboration with Justin Beck, a Californian
electronica artist. The album was also the debut of P-Orridge's new interest in
spirituality and
new-age mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
. ''Sacred Dreams'' has been re-released on Justin Beck's label, Sanctioned Records as an mp3.
To complement her interest in
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
Goddess worship, in 1996 Paula P-Orridge/ Alaura O'Dell established an independent,
niche travel company, S''acred Journeys for Womyn''. The company offers educational,
experiential and healing tours exclusively to women, visiting sites of significance
revered for a tradition of
Goddess worship.
Discography
Song
"Magik" on
compilation album, ''Sanctioned Records – The Electronica Sound of Sonoma County Northern California Vol. 1'' (2006)
Albums
* ''Sacred Dreams'' (1995)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:P-Orridge, Paula
1963 births
Living people
English new-age musicians
English electronic musicians
Place of birth missing (living people)
British women drummers
English drummers
People from Westminster
English women in electronic music