the poltergeist in the machine
December 1, 2022
New in Perfect Sound Forever, “The Poltergeist in the Machine,” a meditation on Earle Brown’s thoughts about composition, interpretation, and the freedom hidden in every score.
day 167 of a year of deep listening
November 12, 2022
Starting this past May 9, the 90th anniversary of Pauline Oliveiros’ birth, The Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytech is featuring a different deep listening score each day, for 365 days. The score featured today, day 167, is my Boundary Conditions III.
new in arteidolia
November 11, 2022
Robert Motherwell’s large painting Reconciliation Elegy has fascinated me since I first saw it in the autumn of 1979, not long after it went up in the then-new East Building of the National Gallery of Art. My reflections on the piece appear in the November number of Arteidolia.
on “the image of ardor”
November 2, 2022
New in Otoliths, an essay on Philip Lamantia’s early surrealist poem “The Image of Ardor.” (For more on Lamantia, here’s a piece on his collected prose, from September 2019.)
podcasting about sunday’s show
October 28, 2022
Just up on Podbean, a podcast where I talk about Colla Parte, our upcoming show at Rhizome, and the discreet charm of the double bass. We’ll be at Rhizome, 6950 Maple Street in Takoma Park, at 7 PM on Sunday October 30. Hope to see you there.
an upcoming colla parte performance
October 16, 2022
I’m happy to announce that Colla Parte will be playing on Sunday evening at 7 PM at Rhizome, 6950 Maple Street in Takoma Park, courtesy of our friends at Transparent Productions. It’ll be our first time playing out since June 2021, and we’re looking forward to it.
turns out john cage wasn’t the only one to remain silent
October 2, 2022
What, besides nothing, can one say about a Various Artists recording of silence pieces? Well, maybe this: Blague & Nothingness: The “Most Intriguing Sounds of Silence,” new in Perfect Sound Forever.
oedipus & the other two sphinxes
September 17, 2022
Can there be three, rather than just one, sphinxes at work in the Oedipus myth? I suggest that there are in “Oedipus and the Other Two Sphinxes,” a reading of the Oedipus myth through the complementary ideas of Andre Breton’s humour noir and hasard objectif.
new in swifts & slows
September 4, 2022
Painter Ron Morosan and I have a second image-and-text collaboration in the new number of swifts & slows, a quarterly from Arteidolia.
seventy years of (non) silence
August 15, 2022
John Cage’s “silent” work, 4’33,” had its premiere 70 years ago this month. To mark the occasion, I explore the piece and some of its farther-reaching implications in two different ways: for Perfect Sound Forever, an analytical essay, and for Arteidolia, a set of sentences and aphorisms.
daniel barbiero 