John Oswald

Biography

John Oswald (born May 30, 1953 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a Canadian composer, saxophonist, media artist and dancer. He is best known for coining the term "plunderphonics", the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings.

Early life

Oswald was introduced to sampling from a young age having been gifted a reel-to-reel player from his parents at age 9. He then attended Simon Fraser University in the 1970s, becoming part of World Soundscape Project while on campus. It was there that Oswald became familiar with recorded sounds from different environments and applying them to new work created.

Philosophy

Oswald coined the term "plunderphonics" to describe his craft in a paper called "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative" which he presented at the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985. Inspired by William S. Burroughs' cut-up technique, Oswald had been devising plunderphonic-style compositions since the late 1960s. In an interview with Norman Igma following the release of the Plunderphonics EP in 1988, he described the concept as follows:

A plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded. Whistling a bar of "Density 21.5" is a traditional musical quote. Taking Madonna singing "Like a Virgin" and rerecording it backwards or slower is plunderphonics, as long as you can reasonably recognize the source. The plundering has to be blatant though. There's a lot of samplepocketing, parroting, plagiarism and tune thievery going on these days which is not what we're doing.

Plunderphonics is related to but distinct from sampling used in genres such as hip-hop.

Other projects

Oswald is also actively involved in dance as a composer for dance works, as a collaborator with choreographers, and as an active Contact Improviser.
Oswald founded the record label 'Fony', which produced the retrospective box set 69 plunderphonics 96 (a.k.a. Plunderphonics 69/96) and reissued Grayfolded. The label also rereleased Plexure and released Aparanthesi, a work which uses the single note A in an experiment with timbre, dynamics, and layering, on CD in 2003.
Since 2000 Oswald has been as active in exhibiting his visual art as in continuing his musical activities.

Legacy

In 2004, Oswald was one of six artists to win the annual Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts, as awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts, for lifetime achievement.

List of works

Acupuncture (1991), for clarinet, trumpet, piano, 2 percussion and double bass
Aparanthesi (2003)
Ariature (from The Idea of This) (1999), for chamber orchestra and tape or tenor
b9 (2011), for chamber ensemble
b9 (2012), for the nine symphonies of Beethoven
Bell Speeds (1983, 90)
Blur (Bolton Chili Overdire); 1 Moment, 2 Wow, 3 Nest
Burrows (1974–75)
Compact (R.E.M.T.V. Hammercamp); 1 Phase, 2 Snap
Cyfer (Depeche Mould)
from Burrows: silence to say (1974)
Fee Fie Foe Fum (2017)
Grayfolded (1995)
Homonymy (1998), for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trombone, percussion, violin, cello, doublebass and video tape
Mad Mod (Jello Bellafonte)
Manifold (Bing Stingspreen); 1 Philosophy, 2 Phase
Massive (Ozzie Osmond); 1 Hazzard, 2 Warning, 3 Treacherous
Ohmigone (2001)
Open (Bo No Ma); 1 Suck, 2 Rip
Ridge (2001)
Skindling Shadés (1987)
"Spectre" (1990), on Short Stories
Temperature (Beastie Shop Beach); 1 Tempus Amoré (Hyper Love Time), 2 Tempo Pact
Un paysage (Ouverture) (1996)
Urge (Marianne Faith No Morrisey); 1 Slow, 2 Slice, 3 Blink
Velocity (Aretha Vanilli); 1 Tremendous, 2 Tremulous
Worse (Anthrax Squeeze Factory)
Zoom (Sinead O'Connick Jr); 1 Alone, 2 Gogh