Lowercase

Lowercase is an extreme form of minimalist ambient music in which very quiet, usually unnoticed sounds — paper handling, room tone, small mechanical and environmental noises — are recorded closely and amplified until they become the entire substance of a composition. The term was coined by *Steve Roden*, whose "Forms of Paper" (2001) is the genre's best-known work; predecessors and peers including *Bernhard Günter*, *Richard Chartier* and *Miki Yui* released on labels such as #LINE# and #Trente Oiseaux#. The music demands concentrated listening and often approaches silence.