Many were the product of artists well past the age when the appeal of new ideas is assumed to have ceased. Second, OHM measures how far we've come in the 20 years since completion of its most recent work. A mere generation ago, pioneers struggled over a single short piece for years with techniques that have become simple matters with current technology. Rudimentary programming and routine processing power now can achieve in hours what the four minutes of Williams Mix took Cage and his crew a year to prepare. But the blinding speed with which electronic music has progressed since the era of OHM carries a risk.
Great art requires intense commitment and significant struggle.
The relative ease of pushing a few keys nowadays can foster a careless, casual attitude. The result all too often can be a vapid and disposable product that denies the essential purpose of artistic creation. While progress has enriched our lives in so many ways, something human can easily be lost. All rights reserved.