John Oswald

Quick Facts

Full Name	John Oswald
Occupation	Composer
Date Of Birth	May 30, 1953(1953-05-30)
Age	71
Birthplace	Kitchener
Country	Canada
Birth City	Ontario
Horoscope	Taurus

John Oswald Biography

John Oswald is one of the most popular and richest Composer who was born on May 30, 1953 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. John Oswald (born May 30 1953, in Kitchener, Ontario) is a Canadian composer and saxophonist as well as a media artist , and dancer. The most well-known of his projects is Plunderphonics which is the process of creating new music by making use of recordings that have been made before (see the sound collage and musical montage).

The most controversial issue was the release in 1988 of his Plunderphonics EP which he released to press outlets and radio stations. The album contained four tracks that were plundered: “Don’t” by Elvis Presley that featured an accompaniment piano by Bob Wiseman, “Pocket” by The Count Basie and a rendition that featured Dolly Parton singing “The Great Pretender” where “she gets to sing a duet with himself(sic)” and “Spring”, a version of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The album was released in 1989. Oswald made available an extended version of his Plunderphonics album that contained 25 tracks, each containing songs by a different artist. In 1990, a notice was sent Oswald of the notice given to Oswald from the Canadian Recording Industry Association on behalf of a number customers (notably Michael Jackson, whose track “Bad” had been cut into pieces, layered and rearranged to form “Dab”) that all unreleased copies that were not distributed by Plunderphonics be destroyed on the basis of threat of legal actions. A portion of an announcement on the website of Plunderphonics is as follows:

From 1993-1996, Oswald worked on and released Grayfolded, a 2-Disc set commissioned by the Grateful Dead consisting of pieces created from over 100 performances of the song “Dark Star”. Oswald initially created and released disc 1, “Transitive Axis”, which contains a 59 minute 59 second work in 9 movements. Feeling that there was more territory to explore, Oswald worked on disc 2, Mirror Ashes, which is a composition in “6*” movements. Once both discs were complete they were packaged together with extensive liner notes and a “visual time map” of the sources used in the compositions. Grayfolded was selected the #1 international recording of the decade by the Toronto Sun.

In 1993 Oswald released Plexure. Arguably his most ambitious composition to date, it attempted to microsample the history of CD music up to that point (1982–1992) in a 20 minute collage of bewildering complexity. The ambition of this piece would later be recalled by the British bootlegger Osymyso, whose “Intro-Inspection” emulates the pop-junkie feel of Plexure.

Oswald invented”plunderphonics” as a concept “plunderphonics” to describe his technique in a paper entitled “Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative” which he delivered during the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985. Inspired by William S. Burroughs’ cut-up technique, Oswald had been devising compositions that resembled plunderphonics since the mid-’60s. When he spoke to Norman Igma following the release of the Plunderphonics EP in 1988, he explained the concept in the following manner:

John Oswald Net Worth

John Oswald is one of the richest Composer from Canada. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, John Oswald 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

The track from 1975 “Power” married frenetic Led Zeppelin guitars with the passionate appeals of an Southern US evangelist before hip hop realized the potential of the same (and similar) ingredients. In the same way, his track from 1990 “Vane”, which pitted two distinct versions of “You’re So Vain” (the Carly Simon original and a cover by Faster Pussycat) against each one another, served as a model for the current pop subgenre called ‘glitch pop’, or’mashup (music)’.

In 1980, Oswald founded the Mystery Tapes Laboratory, which created unnamed, unattributed works on cassette, described on the plunderphonics website as “little boxes of sonifericity specifically formulated for the curious listener. Available in your choice of aural flavors: subliminal, blasted, excerpted, repeatpeateatattttttedly, these cinemaphonically-concocted aggregates of tres different but exquisitely manifest, unprecedentedly varied festerings of audio quality fine magnetic cassette tapes are the best of whatever you’ve been listening for”. Oswald is still the in charge of the research department for Mystery Tapes.

In addition to his extensive work in “plunderphonics”, Oswald is also involved with acoustic music, as a composer and improviser. His compositions for orchestra often do include electronic elements, such as Concerto for Wired Conductor and Orchestra (?), but has also composed for acoustic ensembles, such as Acupuncture (1991). Oswald improvises with the saxophone, and is a member of free improvisation group CCMC. Oswald is also actively involved in dance, as a composer for dance works, as a collaborator with choreographers, and as an active Contact Improviser.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is John Oswald Dating?

According to our records, John Oswald is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, John Oswald’s is not dating anyone.

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Facts & Trivia

John Ranked on the list of most popular Composer. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in Canada. John Oswald celebrates birthday on May 30 of every year.