8 Breaths Of Different Lengths

You don't look for variety in a song by Steve Roden.

Also a visual artist, painter, sculptor, and installation creator, Roden was among the first exponents of the lowercase movement, an extreme form of ambient minimalism in which very faint sounds alternate with long periods of silence. Roden later evolved into a more continuous sound style, made of a subtle, almost granular, composite, irregular but broad-ranging drone.

As in this 8 Breaths Of Different Lengths, taken from Three Roots Carved To Look Like Stones, released by the French netlabel Sonoris in 2003.

Listen to it in silence. Don't turn up the volume.

Program notes (for the whole album):

this work was originally an installation presented at inmo gallery, in chinatown/los angeles, december 2000. the work was created using 3 objects purchased at chinatown giftshops: a toy wooden flute, a small aluminum wind chime, a small paper accordion. each track was created using one of these objects as the only sound source. some of the sounds have been processed electronically. the installation was created in response to: the generic sounding ‘muzak’ playing in most of the public spaces of chinatown; the private landscape of chinatown lingering unnoticed in alleys and second floor windows; and, a book on the history of chinese philosopher’s stones. the audio was installed in front of a large picture window facing the chinatown pedestrian area.

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