www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx

Pauline Oliveros and Jesse Stewart

Improvised music of the sort generally labeled "avant-garde" is arcane, hyper-specialized; it tends to please small and devoted audiences and has little impact on the wider world, which is dominated by far more commercial and accessible sounds. But what if an improvised performance is more than an improvised performance? Does improvised music open a door to possibilities for social change? And if that's the case, shouldn't more people be paying attention?