Unfortunately, I’m seeing unconfirmed reports that Maryanne Amacher, one of America’s most important sound artists, has died today. Though we never met (she taught at Bard, though well after I graduated), one of my favorite concert experiences of all time has to be seeing Amacher “live” in Chicago (she generally declined to “perform,” preferring sound installation work, but did actually perform in Chicago at 6ODUM when it was a functioning venue, as part of the LAMPO series). Her few releases, for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, are absolute masterpieces of pure sound and volume.