Pauline Oliveros passed away on November 25th, 2016 of natural causes. She was 84. As a pioneer of the ambient, electronic, and avant-garde genres, we would like to take this time to pay a small tribute to the life of Mrs. Oliveros.

Pauline Oliveros’ life was full of colorful twists and turns, including coining the phrase “deep listening” by descending into a 14 foot cement container and recording an entire electronic sounds album. She prided herself in her work, and only dabbled in her independent music career outside of her research position as a Professor of Music at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Beginning in the 1950s, Oliveros experimented with improvisation, electronic, and ritual music through her accordion. Along the way, she wrote musical scores inspired by anything from Native American mythology to the work of Nikola Tesla. After coining “deep listening” in the 1980s, Oliveros went on to found what is now known as the Deep Listening Institute. The institute continues to support musicians pushing the boundaries of musical genres just as their founder taught.

“Pigeonholing a work or putting it in a box kind of dismisses that work, or discounts the more interesting aspect of it. I’ll do anything I can to get out of that.” - Pauline Oliveros, 2002.

NiaSound’s compilation Butterfly was curated for followers of Nia Technique, who believe in many of the preachings of Pauline Oliveros and the practice of meditation. Butterfly features mellow electronic sounds scattered throughout the compilation, finding influences from Oliveros’ work.

You can purchase Butterfly compilation on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play.