deep listening

Deep listening is a meditative approach to music conceived by American composer Pauline Oliveros. It involves a voluntary act of listening that encompasses all ambient sounds within a performance space, merging involuntary hearing with selective inclusion and exclusion of sounds. This practice aims for listeners to comprehend their place within a complex sonic environment by broadening and narrowing their focus on available sounds. Oliveros developed this concept through her Sonic Meditations and Deep Listening Pieces, drawing inspiration from Native American cultures and Buddhism. The Pauline Oliveros Foundation, later renamed the Deep Listening Institute, was established to promote these principles.1