Solo Voice & Electronics, and Video, premiered: 2005, duration: 80:00

Metal/Vox/Water is an evening comprised of several of Pamela Z’s short solo works and some excerpts from her large-scale multi-media works, staged with a lighting design by Elaine Buckholtz, a sculptural element by Pamela Z, and a large projection of video by Pamela Z and her collaborators Jeanne Finley + John Muse. Ms. Z digitally processes her voice in real time to create layers of sound and triggers sampled sounds with the BodySynth™ MIDI controller.

The evening takes it’s title from a segment in which she performs a “trio” with amplified strips of metal hung in the space and a video that samples metal, water, and voice. In another segment (an exceprt from Voci) she triggers samples of birdsong and morphs her own voice into a birdvoice. Other segments in Metal/Vox/Water are drawn from excerpts of her large-scale multi-media performance works (Parts of Speech and Gaijin) and presented alongside short concert works that have been her signature throughout her career as a composer/performer.

Voice & Electronics, Cello & Electronics, and multiple channels of Video, premiered: 2005, duration: 55:00

Wunderkabinet is a one-act multi-media opera developed by composer/performer Pamela Z in collaboration with cellist/composer Matthew Brubeck and media artist Christina McPhee. Scored for voice & electronics, cello & electronics, & video, the piece is inspired by and based on the exhibits displayed at the enchanting and renowned Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. Wunderkabinet premiered in September of 2005 with a two-week run at The LAB Gallery in San Francisco.

The music of Wunderkabinet is performed by Pamela Z (voice and live electronic processing) and Matthew Brubeck (cello & electronics). The piece is performed in a multi-layered set (designed by Pamela Z) which constantly shifts and changes as it is bathed in Christina McFee's projected images – evoking the dark yet radiant focus of the museum's dioramas. The score (composed by Z and Brubeck) utilizes bowed and plucked strings, sampled found objects, and a wide range of vocal work ranging from operatic bel canto to experimental extended vocal techniques and spoken text. The libretto is derived from passages of actual descriptive texts from the Museum of Jurassic Technology's exhibitions and stories inspired by them.

Solo Voice & Electronics, and multiple channels of Video, premiered: 2003, duration: 80:00

Voci is a full evening length, interdisciplinary performance work exploring the sonic, cultural, physical, and artistic worlds of the human voice. The piece, which premiered at ODC Theater in San Francisco in 2003 and had it's New York premiere at the Kitchen in 2004, celebrates the broad range of colours in the singing and speaking voice, and examines various phenomena such as people's perceptions of each other based on voice. It consists of layered, dynamically varied segments incorporating live vocal work with digital processing, vocal samples, and projected video. These segments approach voice as anatomy, as character, as identifier, and communicator. The piece weaves stories about voice together with arias, non-verbal utterances, choruses of "real" and synthetic voices, fragments of scientific information, beautiful and terrifying cries and whispers. Voci features three channels of video designed by Jeanne Finley + John Muse and a lighting and set design by Elaine Buckholtz.

(Voci is currently being booked exclusively through Bernstein Artists <bernsarts@aol.com>)

Solo Voice & Electronics, Multi-image Projections, created: 1998, duration: 95:00

A full evening length, solo, multimedia performance work exploring language. Parts of Speech involvies voice, sound processing, found text, sampled sounds of speech fragments triggered with the BodySynth™ MIDI Controller, multi-image projections and video. Parts of Speech had itÕs premeire at Theater Artaud in December of 1998 and was previously performed as a work in progress at New Langton Arts (SoundCulture 1996) and The Marsh (1993). Parts of Speech and includes segments focusing on the language of asking, the changing language of gender, questioning, grammar, dialect, small talk, coercion, technology, mass media, and the subtleties and music of the human speaking voice. Pamela Z appears as narrator, news commentator, storyteller, and cantor in this word ritual. Parts of Speech is a grammer quiz made up entirely of trick questions.

Surround sound installation (2008) total duration: 22 minutes (or continuous)

Timepiece Triptych is a suite of multi-channel sound works exploring time-related processing on vocally-produced sounds. Various time-altering digital processes including extreme time-compression and time-expansion, delay, granular syntheses, reversal, and reverb are applied to spatialized layers of text fragments and brief melodic material.  The only sound sources used in the three segments are my voice and (in Syrinx) the voices of birds. The suite is comprised of a new (2008) sound work and new versions of two pre-existing sound works, cycled either consecutively on the same 4-channel system or individually on three proximate, but acoustically separate systems.

            i             Declaratives in the First Person
            ii             Syrinx
            iii             De-Star Spangled Banner

Four-channel surround sound installation (2008) duration: 10:19 (or continuous)

De-Star Spangled Banner is made entirely of samples from a leftover artifact of a project I did with conceptual artist Kelly Heaton– a time-expanded recording of my voice singing a bel canto rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.  Samples of this recording are processed to create varied lengths and layerd. Pitch correction is consistently used whenever the time is expanded or compressed, resulting in a palate of sounds that remains completely within the pitch range of the original melody.  Embedded in the texture are passages of the anthem stretched to as much as 35 times it’s original length so that, if played in its entirety, the normally under-two minute song would become fifty minutes in length. The opening phrase “O say, can you see”, which normally takes approximately 4 seconds to sing, lasts for a full two minutes in some of its iterations here.  Likewise, there are samples where the time is compressed to the extent that the entire anthem takes only five and half seconds from beginning to end. My vibrato (which is already so wide you can drive a truck through it) forms incredible hills and valleys when stretched, and creates a kind of warbly underwater opera sound when compressed. I found that, when layering the longer stretched passages, I not only achieved a good deal of the customary “beating” one generally gets from phase-shifting, but the clashing of my hideously wide vibrato morphs quite convincingly into air-raid sirens, vacuum cleaner motors, and bad refrigerator compressors. When heard un-layered, these same stretched passages sound more like crying or plaintive moaning.

Multi-channel video and sound installation/performance: 2007

Sonic Gestures is a video installation and performance work that premiered in April 2007 at Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco. Consisting of ten channels of video composed of fragmented gestural images with live vocal sounds processed and spatialized in real time using MAX MSP software and custom gesture controllers, Pamela Z surrounds the audience with a virtual chorus of chattering, whispering, singing, and ever transforming sonic entities. This piece, which was commissioned and presented by NexMap, utilizes 16 channels of audio (generated llive and from the audio of the multiple videos.) It was designed as a site-specific piece for the immersive video and sound set-up at RML and can be shown as a stand-alone sound/video installation (repeating) or as a performance piece (22 minutes) with the artist appearing live.

5.1 surround sound installation: 2005

Lift is a multi-channel sound installation based commissioned by the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY for their "Elevator Music" series. The piece involves layers of sound recorded in various elevators with samples and voice-overs recorded in Pamela Z's studio. Lift had its premiere at the Tang Museum November 2005-January 2005, where it was exhibited in the museum's ample elevator. Quoted from the installation wall commentary from the exhibition at the Tang:

"You enter a small chamber; the doors seal behind you. When they open again, you find that your surroundings have changed.  The change can be so complete and abrupt that it’s startling. An entirely different color scheme, a complete set of new sounds and aromas, the sudden presence of a person or people, or the sudden absence of anyone. The erection of an entirely new set of walls, or the replacement of existing walls with open air.

Or the change is very slight. The differences so subtle that they are barely noticeable. But, something is clearly different. At first, it’s just a feeling. But closer inspection reveals that a single word or character on a sign has changed. The temperature is a few degrees warmer or cooler. A quiet buzzing sound has become just a little louder. There’s a small chair or a wastebasket. The light level is a bit brighter.  Someone you can’t see is whispering.  There’s a faint chemical smell."

Four-channel and Eight-channel surround sound installation: 2004

Syrinx is a multi-channel sound installation based on samples of birdsongs. To create this work, I took what sounded like a fairly simple and short birdsong and slowed it down numerous times in Pro Tools until it's individual pitches and melodic material were revealed. I then learned to sing the melody and sped my voice up until it was the same length and pitch as the original birdsong. The piece is made from multiple layers of the various permutations of the birdsong and the human interpretation of it. I originally created it in a four channel version for an exhibition called "Sound Migrations" at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles (2004), and later revamped it as an 8 channel (plus sub-woofer channel) work for the "New Sound New York" exhibtion at the Kitchen Gallery in (2004). A shortened, live two-channel version also exists as a small segment of the performance work Voci, leading into a section called "Bird Voice".

Six-channel sound installation: 2005

Declaratives in the First Person (2005) was originally created as a six-channel audio installation for an exhibition entitled "The Art of Artist Statement" at the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago. The work was composed of three stereo pairs of varying lengths playing through 6 speakers surrounding the listener– all looping continuously to create ever-shifting layers of sound, so that one could listen all day and not hear the exact same combination of fragments.  In response to the exhibition's subject matter, I sampled my own voice speaking this sentence: "I would like to think that the art itself would be enough of a statement." The text was then cut into fragments, compressed, expanded, and layered in various combinations. A stereo mix of one possible iteration of the six channels can be heard here.

Six-channel sound installation: 2004

Just Dust is a six-channel audio installation created by Pamela Z for for Dak'Art Biennale. Originally exhibited at the Maison des Esclaves on Gorée, Just Dust combines layers of spoken text in English, French, and Wolof with sampled concrète sounds recorded during a December of 2003 site visit to Dakar. Through language and sound, Just Dust chronicles the artist’s first visit to Dakar.

Speaking voices: Pamela Z, Alassane Paap Sow
Additional sampled voices: Joseph Ndaiye, Koyo Kouoh, Amina
French tranlsation: Thierry Rosset
Wolof translation: Alassane Paap Sow

Performance/installation with Video, Solo Voice and processing, composed: 2002, duration: 30:00 (or ongoing)

This performance/installation exploring physical identity, perception, and the act of spontaneous verbal description premiered at The Exploratorium as part of an exhibition called "Sight Unseen". People are invited to either sit one minute for a camera, or to describe in detail (as if for a police artist) a face that appears on a video monitor. Pamela Z performs with voice, samples and real time processing– mixing and layering her sound with the video "headshots" of people accompanied by the one-minute verbal descriptions of their faces.
(This work can also be presented as a stand-alone gallery installation with two channels of video & audio on a 30 minute loop.)

Solo Voice with processing, Video, Samples, BodySynth™, composed: 2001, duration: 12:00

This is a trio of sorts for one live performer and two large video monitors. The monitors display two separate, coordinated feeds of video and audio edited from footage shot of Pamela Z manipulating, singing, and interacting with the an amplified metal sound installation she created in her studio during a residency at Tryon Center for Visual Art. The third componant of the trio is her live perfomance with vocal processing and samples.

Solo Voice , Found Percussion & Electronics, composed: 1992, duration: 8:00

This work for voice, electronics, and 5 gallon plastic water bottle layers a haunting, wordless melody and frenetic, processed chattering in an imaginary language over the polyrhythm of three boomy, percussive delay loops. This piece was originally intended for the Qube Chix’ "Circle of Bone", but didn’t really belong in the piece and became a staple of Pamela Z's solo repertoire.

top

(from Voci) Solo Voice & Electronics, sampled birdsong, composed: 2003, duration: 5:00

Birdvoice begins with sampled birdsong triggered with a gesture-based MIDI controller. Pamela Z then plays a short bird sample and begins to systematically shift it down in pitch until its individual sounds are slow enough to be imitated by a human voice. She then sings the slow version and shifts it back up until it once again sounds like a bird. This little excersize (inspired by her sound installation "Syrinx") serves as an elaborate introduction to a little art-song (sung in French and English and accompanied by digital delay loops) about the voice of the bird.

(from Parts of Speech) Solo Voice & Electronics, composed: 1986, duration: 3:30

Pop Titles 'You' is a found text piece for voice and three delay lines. The text is taken from an issue of the Phonolog Report, a reference publication that was found in record stores and listed the titles of available recordings and their composers and performers (until it was replaced by computers). This piece appears on the 1988 ZED recording, "Echolocation", and was later used as one of the segments of the 1995 sound work and 1998 performance work Parts of Speech.

Solo Voice & Found Percussion, composed: 1992, duration: 6:00

An acoustic work for voice and hammer handles. Generally the entire space (stage and audience area) is used to perform the work.

top

(from Metrodaemonium) Solo Voice & Electronics, composed: 1997, duration: 5:00

An ode to the talking ticket machines in San Francisco's reverberant, concrete, downtown parking garages, Car Park uses voice, delay lines, and piano samples triggered with the BodySynth™ MIDI controller.

(from Gaijin) Solo Voice & Electronics, composed: 1986, duration: 4:00

Composed for voice (singing and speaking) and modulated delay, this “alternate reality” piece originally appeared on "Echolocation" (ZED 1986) and later became a movement of Gaijin.

top

Solo Voice & Electronics, composed: 1998, duration: 7:00

This structured improvisation for voice, processing and samples (triggered with the BodySynth™) was born out of a collaboration with sensorChip (Miya Masaoka, Donald Swearingen, and Pamela Z).

top

Solo Voice & Electronics, composed: 1994, duration: 5:00

A work for voice, processing, and piano samples triggered and pitch-bent with the BodySynth™ MIDI controller.

String Quartet and Tape, composed 2005, duration 9:00

This work was commissioned by the string quatet "Ethel" and was premiered by the quartet at the Krannert Center in Champagne Urbana, IL in October 2005. From the program notes of that concert:

"Ethel would like to settle down and relax after a long day’s work and watch something she has recorded, but she’s so tired, that she drifts off before she’s even made it through the opening credits.  She sleeps fitfully as mixed messages from her program, along with countless advertising breaks and news bulletins, infomercials and cultural programs scan forward and backwards across her closed eyelids and seep in through her vulnerable open ears.  Ethel is puzzled as her dreams are re-written and edited to please the corporate sponsors and their themes are influenced by the whims of the underwriters.  She becomes disoriented as time stretches, condenses, pauses, races forward and backwards, and she finally wakes up with her head on the TiVo remote."

Voice & Electronics, Cello & Electronics, and multiple channels of Video, premiered: 2005, duration: 55:00

Wunderkabinet is a one-act multi-media opera developed by composer/performer Pamela Z in collaboration with cellist/composer Matthew Brubeck and media artist Christina McPhee. Scored for voice & electronics, cello & electronics, & video, the piece is inspired by and based on the exhibits displayed at the enchanting and renowned Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. Wunderkabinet premiered in September of 2005 with a two-week run at The LAB Gallery in San Francisco.

The music of Wunderkabinet is performed by Pamela Z (voice and live electronic processing) and Matthew Brubeck (cello & electronics). The piece is performed in a multi-layered set (designed by Pamela Z) which constantly shifts and changes as it is bathed in Christina McFee's projected images – evoking the dark yet radiant focus of the museum's dioramas. The score (composed by Z and Brubeck) utilizes bowed and plucked strings, sampled found objects, and a wide range of vocal work ranging from operatic bel canto to experimental extended vocal techniques and spoken text. The libretto is derived from passages of actual descriptive texts from the Museum of Jurassic Technology's exhibitions and stories inspired by them.

Voice, Electronics, Koto, composed: 1994, duration: 9:00

This work for voice, delays, water samples, and koto was first performed at the Knitting Factory, and has also been played at The LAB gallery in San Francisco.

Electronic Trio, Voice, and Video, composed: 1996, duration: 20:00

This trio composed by electronic musicians Pamela Z, Donald Swearingen and Laetitia Sonami and Video Artists ÒVisual BrainsÓ was commissioned by the Interlink Festival and premiered at Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo in November of 1996. The text in this work was written by Melanie Sumner.

Voice, Processing, Harp, and Tape, composed: 1991, duration: 5:06

Co-compoesed with harpist Barbara Imhoff, for voice, processed voice, concert harp, and recorded processed harp, this work premiered at a five-city, live link-up performance celebrating the work of Pauline Oliveros.

The electro-acoustic trio sensorChip (Miya Masaoka, Donald Swearingen. and Pamela Z) performs works for voice, koto, samplers, and electronics controlled by sensor-based, gesture activated MIDI instruments.

The Qube Chix (Pamela Z, Julie Queen, and Leigh Evans) is a performance ensemble doing a variety of works from quirky vocal/electronic trios and twisted avant-cabaret songs to interdisciplinary performance works with live vocal music, film, and butoh dance. Their theatre works (Circle of Bone, Stch-tche-na-ko) have been presented in venues such as Theater Artaud in San Francisco, and their band (with Hillary Maroon on bass and clarinet and J Why on drums) has performed songs such as Bald Boyfriend in clubs such as SF's Elbow Room and NY's CBGB's Gallery.