John Oswald
|
|
John Oswald (born May 30, 1953 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian composer, saxophonist, photographer, and dancer. His best known project is Plunderphonics, the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings (see sound collage and musical montage). He was a student of R. Murray Schafer and Barry Truax at Simon Fraser University and of David Rosenboom, Casey Sokol, Richard Teitelbaum, and James Tenney at York University.
In addition to his extensive work in plunderphonics, Oswald is also involved with acoustic music, as a composer and improvisor. His compositions for orchestra often do include electronic elements, such as Concerto for Wired Conductor and Orchestra (?), but has also composed for acoustic ensembles, such as Acupuncture (1991). Oswald improvises with the saxophone.
Oswald is also actively involved in dance, as a composer for dance works, as a collaborator with choreographers, and as an active Contact Improviser.
- "If creativity is a field, copyright is the fence" - John Oswald.
Discography
- Short attack (?)
- Power (1975)
- Improvised (1978)
- Plunderphonics (1988)
- Plunderphonics (1989)
- Electrax (1991)
- Discophere (1991)
- Acoustics (1993) - with Henry Kaiser, Jim O'Rourke, and Mari Kimura
- Plexure (1993)
- GrayFolded (1994)
- Parcours scénographique (1997)
- Plunderphonics 69-96 (Box set) (2000)
- Complicité (2001) - with Paul Plimley, Marilyn Crispell and Cecil Taylor
- Bloor (2001) - with David Prentice and Dominic Duval
- Dearness (2002) - with Anne Bourne and Fred Frith
- Aparanthesi (2003)
- Arc d’apparition (DVD) and Whisperfield (CD) (2004)
Sources
- Scaruffi.com (http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/oswald.html)
- The Canadian Music Centre (http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=10734&by=O)
External Links
- Bio from the plunderphonics site (http://www.plunderphonics.com/xhtml/xoswaldbio.html)