Visiting Practitioner Lecture Series – Pamela Z

I was first introduced to Pamela Z through the 11/19/17 solo voice & electronics video, and at the time I marveled at her control, not only of her voice but also of the control of her instruments.

“I love playing with that strange territory between language as meaningful communication and language as a purely sonic element,” (Pamela Z, 2021)

“I know that if it’s language that’s understood by the listener, it’s impossible to just throw it in there and say I’m just using it for the sound of it. So that meaning becomes a layer of the work. But you can play with things that cause that meaning to sort of recede or disappear” (Pamela Z, 2021)

“like repetition and layering, that will eventually make the sound start to lose its meaning in the ears of the listener. Then it will start to take on new meanings over time.” (Pamela Z, 2021)

Since then I have been following Pamela Z, learning about her works, and listening to her music. Indeed, her works, her electronic music, are different. In today’s lecture, she also told a lot of things. It’s useful to me, not in a technical way, but terms of ideas and creativity.