From The Stranger

When Stuart Dempster showed me Then & Now, Now & Then (Taiga), a double LP commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Deep Listening Band (aka DLB), I almost dropped the damn thing. I’m embarrassed to admit I had forgotten that well-made vinyl LPs are heavy.

“Deep Listening” sounds heavy, too, until you realize that the weight of the music made by DLB—the trio of Dempster, Pauline Oliveros, David Gamper, and assorted collaborators—resides not in claiming profundity, but in the act of making natural resonance and reverberation integral to their performances. By turns playful, austere, simple, hypnotic (in the old-school minimalist sense), funny, and complex, the “deep listening” happens among the musicians and inside the surrounding acoustic space.

Continue reading at The Stranger

Category:
Seattle Jazz