We are very proud to present the music of Steve Peters, which Alvin Curran once described as "pure, restrained, and rigorously beautiful."

Originally composed as sound installations, these three delicate pieces - or rooms, as the title states - are the result of very personal investigation regarding the interaction between physical spaces and the experience of listening. The selected compositions on the disc seem to emanate themselves from these spaces to continuously create room(s) for the listener, intensifying quietly and subtly our awareness.

In "Delicate Abrasions," all of the sounds are derived from tactile interaction with the interior surfaces and materials of an old warehouse building in Santa Fé, New Mexico: nails, dust, sliding door, concrete, metal, glass, and wood. These seemingly inert materials yield a beautiful music hidden within the walls (and ceiling, and floor) of this otherwise mute and neglected space.

"Center of Gravity" was composed for an installation with artist Susan York of one of her "graphite rooms," which evoke the contemplative space of a Japanese rock garden. The sound was made entirely with Steve's own breath and real-time electronic processing. Each individual breath was treated as its own miniature composition. These short pieces are then layered and punctuated by silences of random length.

The final piece, "Mountains Hidden in Mountains," is made entirely from one strike of the densho (meditation bell) at a Zen Buddhist temple in New Mexico. The sound of the bell never quite dies away, instead revealing the complex dance of overtones in the air and ever-deepening pure waves. It was adapted as a participatory sound installation in a faux bell tower at the Santa Fé Art Institute in 2004.

tracks
1. Abrasions
2. centre of gravity
3. mountains within mountains

about Steve Peters
Steve Peters (b. 1959) makes music/sound for various contexts and occasions, using recorded sounds of the world and found/natural objects, or through exploration of acoustic phenomena, as well as normal instruments and spoken text. In recent years his work has focused primarily on site-specific sound environments that explore ideas about place/presence and encourage subtle listening for extended durations.

Other recent installations include "Alchemy," with artist Christine Wallers; "Confluences: Songs of the Rio Grande and its Tributaries"; "Emanations," with artist Claire Giovanniello; and "Here-ings: a sonic geohistory." His installation work has been presented at the Santa Fé Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fé Art Institute, Albuquerque Museum, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Texas El Paso, Brooklyn College, Portland Art Center, Seattle Public Library, and elsewhere.

Peters has collaborated with artists such as vocalist Anna Homler, sound artist Steve Roden, composers David Dunn, Francisco López, Steven M. Miller, vocalist Marghreta Cordero (aka Nacha Mendez), and with improvisers such as Tom Guralnick, JA Deane, Chris Cochrane, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori, Lesli Dalaba, Judy Dunaway, Doug Henderson, Jack Wright, and many others. He has composed extensively for dance and theater, and he also composed the soundtrack for a documentary on the great abstract painter Agnes Martin. He was an original member of Gamelan Encantada, a Javanese/American ensemble that performs both traditional and contemporary music, and studied gamelan selonding in Tenganan, Bali.

After living in the high desert of New Mexico for many years, Peters now lives in Seattle, where he occasionally performs with the Phonographers Union, a collective that improvises with only unprocessed field recordings. He works also as a freelance producer, writer, and curator, and is the Director of Nonsequitur, a non-profit organization presenting a series of experimental music and sound art events.

selected releases:
3 Rooms, (CD, sirr, 2007)
From Shelter (CD, Cold Blue)
With My Back to the World: Agnes Martin (DVD, New Deal Films)
Here-ings: A Sonic Geo-history (CD/book, La Alameda Press)
In Memory of the Four Winds (CD, pianssimo)
Emanations (CD, OO Discs)

+info
http://steve-peters.blogspot.com/