''Dissolution'' is a 2016 LP by American musician and sound artist Olivia Block. It was released on 11 November 2016 by

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Glistening Examples on

LP record The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and ...

Background

''Dissolution'' is composed of

found sound Found objects are sometimes used in music, often to add unusual percussive elements to a work. Their use in such contexts is as old as music itself, as the original invention of musical instruments almost certainly developed from the sounds of nat ...

s, instruments,

microcassette The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969. It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using th ...

s, and

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 m ...

signals. The press release described it as "a reflection upon human 'webs of significance,' and an investigation into the ways that electronic communications technologies, both past and present, facilitate, complicate and transmute the formation of these webs."

Track listing

LP release

Performances

On September 14, 2013, Block performed her composition ''Dissolution'' alongside

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Ce ...

at the

ISSUE Project Room The ISSUE Project Room (often shortened to ISSUE) is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. Located in 110 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the venue supports a wide variety of contemporary performance, spec ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. On October 26, 2016, Block performed in Ponce de Leon Hall Rotunda at

Flagler College Flagler College is a private liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida. It was founded in 1968 and offers 33 undergraduate majors and one master's program. It also has a campus in Tallahassee. History Founded in 1968, the campus compris ...

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...

. On February 1, 2017, Block played a multimedia performance at

Arthur Ross Gallery The Fisher Fine Arts Library was the primary library of the University of Pennsylvania from 1891 to 1962. The red sandstone, brick-and- terra-cotta Venetian Gothic giant—part fortress and part cathedral—was designed by the acclaimed P ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

campus in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

Personnel

;Production *Shaun Flynn – clarinet *Lesley Swanson – flute *Jason Lescalleet – mastered by

Reception

In September 2013, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''s Steve Smith reviewed her performance at the

involving

contact microphone A contact microphone, also known as a piezo microphone, is a form of microphone that senses audio vibrations through contact with solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact microphones are almost completely insensitive to air vibrat ...

recorders, and

walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gros ...

s; as "graceful, deliberate physicality of her gestures enhanced the ebb and flow of her aural assemblage, endowing what might have sounded abstract and cerebral with palpable sensations of volition and emotional involvement." In October 2016, ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, ...

''s David Nadelle recommended preordering the LP. In November 2016, ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

''s Nilan Perera said "While ostensibly ambient in nature, in terms of how the general feel of how the sound/music flows, one shouldn't make the mistake of listening and not expecting narrative — there is a linear and present one in each piece on ''Dissolution''." ''Fluid Radio''s Nathan Thomas reviewed the LP favorably stating "Trying to make sense of "Dissolution" is like trying to piece together an image of a contemporary civilisation from its already-ruined traces; it seems like all these broken shards of communication should come together to form a coherent picture, but consistently, tellingly, they don't." In January 2017, musician

Lawrence English Lawrence English (born 1975/76) is an Australian composer, artist, and curator from Brisbane. His work is broadly concerned with the politics of perception, specifically he is interested in the nature of listening, and sounds' capability to oc ...

listed ''Dissolution'' on his

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sev ...

for '' FACT'' called "Everything Turns Out Golden." In March 2017, ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

''s Russell Cuzner praised its composition as "less a 'movie-for-the-ears' and more a 'music-for-the-mind'."

References

External links

Glistening Examples page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dissolution 2016 albums