Pamela Z - Echolocation (2021/1988)

Born in Buffalo, New York in 1956, Pamela Z has spent her time performing and composing towards the singular objective of finding sounds yet unfelt. Beginning as singer-songwriter on the guitar while studying music in Boulder, Colorado, most of Z’s musical ventures centered around covering artists like Joni Mitchell and Malvina Reynolds B-sides. While getting gigs around the Denver metro-area and moonlighting as a radio host for public radio station KGNU playing tunes spanning from “Varèse to the Ramones, to the Roches, to Pauline Oliveros”, she soon realized she should be building towards the sounds she listened to so much. This revelation dovetailed with the rise of home taping, the zenith of synthesizer culture, and the acquisition of a digital delay pedal, the Ibanez-DM1000, to bring her the signature sound she continues to perfect.

Echolocation was composed by Pamela Z at a time where her name and presence were only beginning to send shockwaves to the Bay Area New Music scene and later the world. Freedom To Spend re-releases Z’s 1988 limited run, cassette only debut onto the New Music scene; a lush tapestry of deep listening vocal meditations, MIDI explorations, and operatic art rock junctures. Echolocation proves in its runtime to still be searching after over three decades since its deliverance.