Originally coined by minimal artist Steve Roden (http://www.inbetweennoise.com/), "lowercase" is an extreme form of ambient minimalism in which very quiet sounds bookend long stretches of silence. Roden started the movement with an album entitled, Forms Of Paper (http://www.12k.com/line/line007.htm) in which he made recordings of himself handling paper in various ways. These recordings were actually commissioned by the Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Many artists have contributed to the lowercase movement, including electronic music pioneer and educator Kim Cascone (http://www.12k.com/cascone.htm), Tetsu Inoue and Bernhard Gunter (http://www.bernhardguenter.net/). Tetsu Inoue is a producer of electronic music. ...
Some of the labels that publish lowercase music include Trente Oiseaux (http://www.trenteoiseaux.com/), 12k (http://www.12k.com/index2.htm) and raster-noton (http://www.raster-noton.de/) which features famed composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, a.k.a. alva noto (http://www.alvanoto.com/). Ryuichi Sakamoto (born January 17, 1952, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan) (坂本 龍一 Sakamoto Ryūichi) is a Japanese musician, composer, producer and actor. ...
Psychologically, this music is cool and feminine, in contrast to the hot and masculine free jazz and “energy music”; in fact, it has arisen partly as the antipode to its predecessor.
Yet with lowercasemusic, technical virtuosity is severely limited in favor of musical judgment, which is quite subjective; one easily produced, ordinary sound might suffice, repeated several times in the piece.
Lowercasemusic might go against the grain of many improvisers, yet there is a certain attraction for what seems to go against us, for that very conflict.
Minimalist artist Steve Roden coined the term "lowercase" to describe a particular style of music he was making a few years ago.
Well, a lot of listeners have discovered this music, and many more critics have taken to the concept of "lowercase"music as a way to describe the kinds of ethereal, abstract recordings that make up the bulk of the releases on such esteemed labels as Line, 3 Particles, and Trente Oiseaux.
I'm not really sure whether Roden is pleased that his attitude is now a genre, but at least he can take solace in the fact that most of the actual musicians who create so-called "lowercase"music do it not to copy Roden but to further their own aesthetic designs.
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