Paul Dolden

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Paul Dolden is an electroacoustic music composer born January 23, 1956 in Ottawa, Canada, and currently living in Montréal, Canada.

1 Recordings
2 List of Works
3 External Links
4 References

Paul Dolden begins his career at age 16 as a professional electric guitarist, violinist and cellist. Excited by the possibilities offered by recording technologies, Paul Dolden turns to contemporary modes of production and dissemination in the creation of his music. At age 29, he wins the first of a string of European awards that establish him as a composer. Now the winner of over twenty international awards, Paul Dolden's music is performed in Europe and North America to wildly enthusiastic audiences.

In a career spanning over twenty five years, Paul Dolden has perfected his unique approach to audio technology, using it as a platform from which to launch or capture otherwise impossible musical performances. In this way, he makes his computer behave like a new, virtual orchestra and manipulates it with as much sensitivity as he would a traditional one. His compositions are characterised by a maximalist aesthetic in which hundreds of digitally recorded instrumental and vocal performances are combined in multiple layers.

Paul Dolden's music has been described as the “missing link” between jazz and rock and the high-brow concert tradition. Critics have called it “music for the information age, enlisting noise, complexity and beauty in its quest for excess,” and characterised it as “apocalyptic hyper-modernism.”

The early works employ a unified approach to timbral and harmonic variation. Under the influence of post-modernism, Paul Dolden's concerns have shifted to include the juxtaposition and superimposition of disparate musical styles evident throughout the Resonance Cycle of works (1992-96). Always working to surpass himself, with the Twilight Cycle of recent years Paul Dolden boldly investigates the forbidden fruit of contemporary new music-melody and dance rhythms.

[edit] Recordings

Délires de plaisirs (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0577, 2005)
Seuil de silences (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0369, 2003)
L'ivresse de la vitesse 2 (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0318, 2003)
L'ivresse de la vitesse 1 (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0317, 2003)
L'ivresse de la vitesse (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9917/18, 1999)
L'ivresse de la vitesse (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9417/18, 1994)
The Threshold of Deafening Silence (Tronia, TRD 0190, 1990)

[edit] List of Works

Below the Walls of Jericho (1988-89)
Beyond the Walls of Jericho (1991-92)
Caught in an Octagon of Unaccustomed Light (1987-88)
Dancing on the Walls of Jericho (1990)
Entropic Twilights (1997-2002)
The Frenzy of Banging on a Can (1997), piano, bass clarinet (B flat clarinet), electric guitar, vibraphone, cello, doublebass, and tape
The Gravity of Silence. Resonance #5 (1995), flute, and tape
Gravity's Stillness. Resonance #6 (1996), violin (or viola), and tape
The Heart Tears… for Saxes and Brass (1998), 4 saxes (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, and tape
The Heart Tears itself Apart with the Power of its own Muscle. Resonance #3 (1995), 4 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 doublebasses, and tape
In a Bed Where the Moon Was Sweating. Resonance #1 (1993), clarinet, and tape
In the Natural Doorway I Crouch (1986-87)
L'ivresse de la vitesse (1992-93)
Measured Opalescence (1988), piano, percussion, and tape
The Melting Voice Through Mazes Running (1984)
Physics of Seduction. Invocation #1 (1991), electric guitar, and tape
Physics of Seduction. Invocation #2 (1991), harpsichord, and tape
Physics of Seduction. Invocation #3 (1992), cello, and tape
Rave #1 (2005), trumpet, electric guitar, vibraphone, piano, acoustic or electric bass, and tape
Resonant Twilight (1998), orchestra, and tape
Revenge of the Repressed. Resonance #2 (1993), soprano sax, and tape
Twilight's Dance (2000)
Veils (1984-85)
The Vertigo of Ritualized Frenzy. Resonance #4 (1996), reed instrument and/or piano (or accordion), and tape