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Listening Report to Pauline Oliveros – Ione

 

I listened to this piece by Pauline Oliveros in full volume to feel every single vibration of the sounds. The volume slowly rises and the elongated sounds made it mysterious and eerie at first. Little by little the music fascinated me and relaxed me. Somehow this time I thought of an underwater world. The light comes only faintly through the water’s surface and glittering particles float through the water. I imagined a submarine navigating slowly, almost in slow motion in the ocean. But it could also be the vastness of space. I think you could use the piece very well as background music for a documentary about new insights in space. You would be in a virtual spaceship and looking at different planets in the distance that you fly past, but you never really see them up close. Or you could also use it wonderfully as background music for a dream trip. As already mentioned, this could then play in space or in the ocean.

It also immediately reminded me of songs from the band Pink Floyd, which somehow always takes you into another dimension. But I could also perfectly meditate to this piece or just lie down somewhere to relax, because the way that the sounds are extended for so long kind of calms me down. You do not even notice how long the piece actually is, even though it does not vary much in the keys. But it definitely did not feel like almost 18 minutes to me. When it started to get a little quieter towards the end, I also needed a moment to come back to reality.

I cannot say exactly which instruments were used to produce these soothing sounds. But I am pretty sure I heard a didgeridoo. This song is fantastic to recover from a stressful day, because the variations of the notes seem to me like a singing bowl.

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