Forms of Paper
Encyclopedia
Forms of Paper is an experimental
musical piece by Steve Roden
created solely from heavily distorted sounds of paper being handled. It is considered to be the first lowercase
album, an ambient music
movement where extremely quiet sounds are amplified using a computer.
public library
for the exhibition "Six Degrees - Art in the Libraries". A ten minute version of the track was played softly continuously for a month from eight speakers atop a pedestal covered with pages from discarded library books. The CD version was expanded and reworked to be nearly an hour long. Only 500 CDs were made of this version and release on <> .ref name="InBetween"/>
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
musical piece by Steve Roden
Steve Roden
Steve Roden is an American sound and visual artist. Best known for pioneering the lowercase style of music, where quiet sounds are amplified amid long stretches of silence, his huge discography includes Forms of Paper, which was commissioned by the Los Angeles public library.-External links:* * at...
created solely from heavily distorted sounds of paper being handled. It is considered to be the first lowercase
Lowercase (music)
Originally coined by minimal artist Steve Roden, lowercase is an extreme form of ambient minimalism in which very quiet sounds bookend long stretches of silence. Roden started the movement with an album entitled Forms of Paper, in which he made recordings of himself handling paper in various ways...
album, an ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
movement where extremely quiet sounds are amplified using a computer.
Development
Forms of Paper was originally commissioned by the Hollywood branch of the Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
for the exhibition "Six Degrees - Art in the Libraries". A ten minute version of the track was played softly continuously for a month from eight speakers atop a pedestal covered with pages from discarded library books. The CD version was expanded and reworked to be nearly an hour long. Only 500 CDs were made of this version and release on <