San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

Olivia Block

Olivia Block creates original sound compositions for concerts, site-specific multi-speaker installations, live cinema, and performance. Her compositions often include field recordings, chamber instruments, and electronic textures. Her solo performances include partially improvised pieces for electronics and amplified objects, presented in a slow and deliberate gestural style that Steve Smith of the New York Times described recently as having “palpable sensations of volition and emotional involvement.” Block also performs original pieces for inside piano. Ms. Block has a background in anthropology, music and sound, and has studied composition and listening practices with Pauline Oliveros. She has performed in festivals worldwide, and presented lectures and master classes at prestigious universities in art, music, cinema and anthropology departments. Her latest LP/download release Karren (Sedimental, 2013), an electroacoustic and orchestral piece performed by Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, has been chosen as “Best of 2014″ by The Wire, Pitchfork, and Artforum, among other publications.