oliveros_lp_01.jpg

Newly unearthed recording of Pauline Oliveros's "Primordial/Lift" with PO (accordion), Jason Hwang (violin), Suzanne Thorpe (oscillator), Anne Bourne (cello/voice), Miguel Frasconi (glass bell bowels), Andrew Deutsch (synthesizer), and David Grubbs (harmonium)

 

Pauline Oliveros
(with Tony Conrad, David Grubbs)
Primordial/Lift
2000

Table of the Elements
[Iodine] TOE-CD-53
Compact disc

Minimalist composer and founding member of the Deep Listening Band, Pauline Oliveros is known for creating pulsating soundscapes and sonic meditations. In these premier recordings, however, she engages a more aggressive, electric sound with assistance from fellow minimalists Tony Conrad and Alex Gelencser, and Gastr del Sol's David Grubbs. Within a strategic modulation processed through a low-frequency oscillator, Conrad's violin, Grubbs' harmonium, and Oliveros' signature accordion drone and enthrall.

“The guiding metaphor of Primordial Lift structures the musicians' performances, mirroring the resonate frequency of the earth and its acceleration from 7.8 to 13hz and beyond. In 1994 the frequency was already at 8.6 and 13hz will be achieved by 2010, at which point the magnetic fields of the earth will pass through a zero point and a polar shift will occur. The acceleration from 7.8 to 13hz is 'Primordial;' 13hz and beyond is 'Lift.'"
P.O.

"On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and Ms. Oliveros would seem to be very close to that level.”
New York Times

Pauline Oliveros
A Little Noise in the System (1966)
Lanthanides Series
2004

Table of the Elements
[Thulium] SWC-LP-69
Phono LP, silkscreen

Pauline Oliveros' life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities to the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills.

A Little Noise in the System is a bold electronic work from 1966, pressed on clear vinyl and silk-screened in white ink.

“In their hushed intensity and breadth of vision, Pauline Oliveros' works for accordion and spatial processing (or actual physical reverberant spaces) have become a benchmark, even if relatively unlauded, of American music in the last half of the 20th century."
Dusted

“A revelation to me, in all its whole-wheat fullness, its nutritious electronic horn of plenty, in full length displays of early American experiments in electronic music, beautiful as it's ever going to be, molded by the fantasy and determination of Pauline Oliveros back in the 1960s; those days of joyous ingenuity and senseless creativity!"
Pogus Productions

“The very life-force of the jungle seemed to spring forth from the music—With Pauline, you are sitting beneath a tree and composing yourself into utter calm and listening with rapt attention and silent mind to all the sounds of life erupting and transforming around you."
Uncle Jam

“Oliveros' music makes you listen afresh to the simplest sounds."
Village Voice

“Few composers can summon such gentle majesty."
New York Times

“It's a magic trick and it works."
Village Voice

A Conduit for History Exploding in the Present Moment

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS is a curatorial network and interdisciplinary platform, live-event presenter, and fine-arts publisher of print, audio, and film, lauded by Pitchfork Media as “a national treasure.” Since its origin as a record label in 1993, TotE has been dedicated to preserving, promoting, and promulgating works by international creators of experimental audio, electroacoustics, free-improvised performance, sonic sculpture, microtonality, and modern composition. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of sound and vision.  Each project demonstrates how a publishing concern might romp wild, unbridled from the carousel of convention.

•     •     •     •     •

"The supremacy of Table of the Elements as an unwavering outpost of ultra-experimental strains can be attributed to its concomitant adherence to valiance. Most of the Table of the Elements catalog has no broad commercial appeal, and many of its projects are risky ventures, even with respect to the experimental marketplace. Yet, this philosophy of risk works because everybody associated with the label feels like they're doing important work releasing important records, and they're willing to go for broke to make it happen.”

—Pitchfork

“The hallmarks of this New Archivism are beautiful and innovative packaging, elaborate and idiosyncratic liner notes, rare and obscure recordings ... Working with graphic designers such as the Grammy-winning Susan Archie, Jeff Hunt produced a collection that combines varied textures, lavish finishes, and period details with art from the era of the original source recordings. Their treatment of Robert Longo’s late 1970s photographs for Rhys Chatham’s releases could, for instance, measure up to what’s on view at most contemporary art centers. In addition to its archival endeavor, TotE also releases the new work of its avant-garde heroes and their devotees. TotE’s active support of the work of sonic pioneers ensures that theirs are living traditions — not ossified museum objects.”

—Thomas Peake, Art Papers

Tony Conrad: Completely In the Present
A Film by Tyler Hubby

"Hubby's film captures Conrad in all his facets ... broadly as a man determined to make 'abstract art funny, happy, energetic, joyful.' Conrad lived long enough to see his early recordings, barely or never released, get the reissue and the attention they deserve. ... [Completely In the Present] is a sharp, sweet, eloquent documentary about the merriest, most artistically expansive minimalist on record. His work and his life asserted the importance of listening for the sounds nobody else has heard."

—Chicago Tribune

“Joyous, exhilarating, and transformative, Tyler Hubby’s documentary is essential viewing for anyone involved in the history of music and visual art.”

—Artforum

"Conrad was 100 percent badass. Without Tyler Hubby’s documentary and Table of the Elements ... one of the great stories of American music and art might have gone underappreciated.”

—Henry Rollins

All contents ©1992–2025 Table of the Elements ®2025 Table of the Elements Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Related media from the Table of the Elements Archive published courtesy the estate of Tony Conrad.

Since 1993, Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise. It intends nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century -- and beyond. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider sounds.

Cart (0)