PAMELA Z: ECHOLOCATION

(Freedom to Spend)

This year proved rewarding for fans of vocalist, composer and visual artist Pamela Z. Despite widespread performance cancellations because of the pandemic, she brought new works to the Prototype Festival in New York and to German radio. She also issued her second full-length solo recording, A Secret Code, while one of her pieces was included on a compilation album produced by the Resonant Bodies Festival.

And there’s time for one more offering from this veteran experimentalist. Echolocation, her long-outof-print, cassette-only recording from 1988, has been reissued on the Freedom to Spend imprint. Its tracks include winning early takes of pieces like the chattering Badagada and the list-poem assemblage Pop Titles ‘You’ — both of which are mainstays of her repertoire. But the rest of the set offers a rare look at this less documented period of her practice.

Given her skill at live looping and solo concertising, it’s a treat to hear her in bandleader mode. The track I Know features synthesisers performed by Donald Swearingen; those keyboard motifs suggest an affinity for both 1980s new wave as well as some 1970s Philip Glass. And during An In, skeletal drum programming by Bill Stefanacci connects to the progressive pop of the era. Bridging these diverse reference points, as ever, is Z’s own virtuosic vocal technique, which incorporates her bel canto training as well as her eclectic listening, across genres. — SETH COLTER WALLS