Bob Ostertag
Robert "Bob" Ostertag (born April 19, 1957 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States) is an experimental audio artist based in San Francisco.
Robert "Bob" Ostertag (born April 19, 1957 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States) is an experimental audio artist based in San Francisco.
Getting A Head
Re-issue of Bob Ostertag's Getting A Head, and underground classic of tape manipulation from before the days of samplers. Best known for his work with computers, here a young Ostertag plays an instrument consisting of a highly unstable and peculiar recording system, which uses helium balloons to hold up tape loops between three tape recorders made to malfunction in a variety of ways. The record marks one of the first, and to this day one of the only, times that tape manipulation techniques devel…
All The Rage
"All the Rage" was developed from a recording I made of a riot in San Francisco in October 1991, which followed California Governor Pete Wilson's veto of a bill designed to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Bob Ostertag's "All the Rage" turned the evening on its head with a devastating roar of gay anger. Of recent concert pieces having to do with AIDS, "All the Rage" seems by far the most powerful example. Mr. Ostertag's stern, purifying gaze has swept away the sentimentality and me…
Getting a head
Second in the metal box limited edition re-releases, this one from1980 with Fred Frith (guitar) and Charles K. Noyes (percussion) and featuring unorthodox instruments built from tape recorders and helium balloons.
Sooner or later
Long out of print, now reissued in limited edition metal boxes by Bob himself,Sooner or Later is a powerful piece (for sampler) derived from the sounds of a Salvadorian boy burying his father: a shovel striking rock, a voice, a buzzing fly. Some guitar sounds by Fred Frith are added in part two. This tells only of the sources; what Bob does with them is compelling and hypnotic.categories CC, SAPT, EL, C
Attention span
With John Zorn (alto sax) and Fred Frith (guitar). Ostertag liner notes, 1990: "This recording is the direct precursor to Say No More. Here I also began with solo recordings, one by John Zorn and the other by Fred Frith. But instead of performing improvisations they merely recorded an "inventory" of the sounds they make. The cd is divided into halves. Slam Dunk is a series of 26 extremely short solos which I performed using only the sounds of John's sax. In Sleepless I use Fred's source material…