KEY POINTS:
Alt. Music 2007 was launched by the equivalent of what might have been described 30 years ago as a supergroup.
Composer and accordionist supremo Pauline Oliveros was centrestage in the Herald Theatre, flanked by American word-artist Ione and our own man-of-many-instruments Phil Dadson.
Dadson opened with two workouts on his ever-evolving and sculptural soundmakers, creations that owe as much to Kiwi DIY as his avowed admiration for Harry Partch.
He picked up the unwieldy gloop-spring-string-drum as Hendrix might a guitar, coaxing an hypnotic counterpoint from its various sonorities.
Strings were bowed and slapped while a can danced at the end of a spring, its bells tinkling on the floor.
This was followed by a turn on the magnificent sonic-loom of his bamboo-barrel-zitherim, its rivulets of sound cascading forth as if from a koto or cimbalon.
The 75-year-old Oliveros, elegant in shirt, trousers and boots, picked up her accordion for Crossovers, a piece built on the concept of ideas crossing from one hemisphere of the brain to another.
The interchange between Oliveros and the gentle Ione was the real issue here.
Oliveros set off with bellowed sighs, moving to needle-like dissonances and spidery scampers on the keyboard.
When Ione, hands clenched in almost childlike delight, seemed to blend Pierrot Lunaire and bop, Oliveros was alongside her to the last vocal tremor.
After the interval, Oliveros' classic 1966 electronic work A Little Noise in the System was remixed for us, the composer masterminding it from the laptop.
Oliveros then picked up on the improvising Dadson, visibly excited when his remixed sounds took the music through new waves of intensity.
The final offering was Dreamless Sleep, another duet between the two women.
We were told to think of this as a journey through layers of consciousness and Ione measured out her words with finely modulated deliberation.
It may have been a tale of mystery and ellipses, but Iones' poised telling of it, accompanied by expressive hand and arm movements, held us spellbound.
We had indeed experienced the power of Deep Listening and a visibly moved audience expressed the deepest of appreciations.
Review
What: Pauline Oliveros/Ione/Phil Dadson.
Where: Herald Theatre.
Reviewer: William Dart.
