John Oliver composer

ARTIST STATEMENT

Welcome

I explore new and ancient materials and techniques from around the world, creating a perceptually-based, visceral listening experience, from the simplest melody to the most intricate musical structures. Acoustic and perceptual principles guide my design with the intention to engage the listener. I write music to intensify the experience of our common humanity. My music typically deals with serious issues, philosophical, moral, spiritual, and existential, and ranges from the dramatic to lyric, ecstatic to placid, tragic to humourous, and can be playful or frightening, cathartic and restorative, restful or stirring, and often invites the listener to reach through a dense and sometimes riotous musical surface to find stillness at the core.

I believe in synthesizing the music of the world, past and present. My catalogue includes rock & folk-inspired hallucinations, post-minimalist drive, post-modern play, organic forms, mythic and socially-relevant subject matter, and works in which many of these merge.

I perform solo and chamber music on electric and classical guitars. For my electronic projects, I combine transformed guitars with soundscapes, electronic and acousmatic music. I also sometimes conduct my own music or mix a show of electroacoustic music.

My music is currently available primarily on my own Bandcamp site, as well as releases from Red Shift Records and earsay. CDs can still be found on ZaDiscs, empreintes DIGITALes, and others. My recordings page has links to most releases.

Become a patron of my creative work on Patreon.

Enjoy your time exploring my site.

Thanks to My Patrons

Site updated 2023-09-09