Pamela Z

Vocalist and composer Pamela Z (Pam Brooks, born in Buffalo in 1956, raised in Colorado and relocated to San Francisco in 1985), follows Diamanda Galas' example in setting her operatic vocal acrobatics within the context of electronic music, but expands it to live electronic music, sampling and found percussion objects. Her first recording was the cassette Echolocation (1988).

She has since composed the large-scale multi-media pieces Parts of Speech (1995) and Gaijin, as well as Live/Work for "high-resolution DVD-Audio surround sound", available on Immersion (Starkland).

A Delay Is Better (Starkland, 2005) samples works composed between 1986 and 1997. Bone Music (accompanied only by an empty water bottle) is a quintessential example of her internal monologues, that explores a broad range of registers, from baroque contralto to a bird's squeal, from shamanic recitation to witchy shrieks. The a-cappella Badagada has several voices soaring indipendently and then joining in choral syllabic repetition or battling in rhythmic counterpoint. Number 3, also a cappella (except for a few metallic noises), starts out in a simpler form of speech but then evolves into a complex merry-go-round of interlocking voices. In Tymes of Olde is a ballad (a real song with lyrics, not just vocalizing) in which the singing voice tell her story amid a multitude of mourning "echoes" while a looping childish cry provides the unnerving "rhythm". The monologue evolves into a dialogue and then into a chaotic discussion in the charming Questions, that sets in motion a clockwork of parallel loops of voices. Mostly, subtlety prevails over sheer emotional outburst. The unaccompanied pieces are thus more reminiscent of Meredith Monk than Galas. The MUNI Sections and NEMIZ are representative of her work in mixing vocal experiments and musique concrete. Feral adds a bassoon to Pamela Z's experiments, and Obsession adds a harp: both attain some of the darkest armospheres. Lacking the tragic underpinning of Galas' requiems, Pamela Z's carefully balanced vocal pieces invest heavily in the "choreography". Rather than focusing on a dramatic persona (as Galas does), they explore universal ambience and the collective subconscious.

Carbon Song Cycle (premiered in 2013), scored for voice & electronics, bassoon, viola, cello, percussion, and immersive multi-channel video was a collaboration with video artist Christina McPhee, and one of Pamela Z's artistic peaks.