Tara's Room: Two Meditations on Transition and Change

by Pauline Oliveiros
Deep Listening, New York, 2004 (1987)
Audio CD-ROM, 2 tracks, 52'33", $16.00
DL CD 22-2004
Distributor’s website: http://www.deeplistening.org/.

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be

Pauline Oliveiros is a composer and performer of international renown who has devoted her life to opening her own and others' sensibilities to the many faces of music and sound. As a composer, teacher, and mentor, she has deeply influenced American music since the 1960's, leading the way for what one might call 'meditative music'. As a performer, she has given the accordion a new status and shown the way for at least two generations of improvising musicians. Her work emphasizes subtlety and attention to the sound as such, whatever the source or the overall structure of a piece. She is founder of Deep Listening.

With their definite New Age-like atmosphere, it is worth mentioning that "Tara's Room" and "The Beauty of Sorrow", the two tracks on this CD, were composed and performed by Oliveiros and recorded in May 1987 already. (They were previously only available as a cassette and long out of print.)

According to the composer, 'The Beauty of Sorrow is intended to assist the listener in connecting and relaxing with deep feelings.' It was played by the composer on a small accordion tuned in just intonation and using Lexico delay processors in a version of her Expanded Instrument System (EIS).

Tara's Room 'is an invocation for wisdom especially during an unfamiliar journey'. It is a multi-track recording with all materials played and sung by the composer. Oliveiros dedicates the pieces 'to all who have lost loved ones whose lives were taken by war'.

As an example of Oliveiros' art and craftswomanship, this is definitely an important release, and for people with a bend towards meditative moods, the repeat button on their CD player should be pressed when listening to The Beauty of Sorrow. Being a down-to-earth pragmatist myself, I enjoy the purity of the accordion sound and the unpresumptuous feeling of 'being there'. I suppose that, if anyone would ask what it feels like to be an accordion, I would suggest listening to this piece.