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Alvin Lucier (1931-2021)



Various Tracks


  1. I Am Sitting in a Room, 15:23 (1969, original recording)

    From SOURCE: Music of the Avant-Garde


    I AM SITTING IN A ROOM" (1969)

    for voice and electromagnetic tape.

    Necessary Equipment:
    1 microphone 2 tape recorders amplifier 1 loudspeaker
    Choose a room the musical qualities of which you would like to evoke.

    Attach the microphone to the input of tape recorder #1.

    To the output of tape recorder #2 attach the amplifier and loudspeaker.

    Use the following text or any other text of any length:
    ""I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any sem- blance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physi- cal fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."
    Record your voice on tape through the microphone attached to tape re- corder #1.

    Rewind the tape to its beginning, transfer it to tape recorder #2, play it back into the room through the loudspeaker and record a second genera- tion of the original recorded statement through the microphone attached to tape recorder #1.

    Rewind the second generation to its beginning and splice it onto the end of the original recorded statement on tape recorder #2.

    Play the second generation only back into the room through the loud speakerand record a third generation of the original recorded statement through the microphone attached to tape recorder #1.

    Continue this process through many generations.

    All the generations spliced together in chronological order make a composition the length of which is determined by the length of original statement and the number of generations recorded.

    The versions in which one recorded statement is recycled through many rooms.

    Make versions using one or more speakers of different languages and in different rooms.

    Make versions in which, for each generation, the microphone is moved to different parts of the room or rooms.

    Make versions that can be performed in real time.



  2. Alvin Lucier "Vespers"

    From the LP Sonic Arts Union


  3. Audio from the video: Landscape with Alvin Lucier with "Outlines of Persons and Things" (Interview)

    Landscape with Alvin Lucier

  4. Audio from the video: The Music of Alvin Lucier - Bird and Person Dyning / Music for Solo Performer

    Bird and Person Dyning / Music for Solo Performer

    Tracks 3 and 4 from Music with Roots in the Aether



Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist (Interview / Documentary)

Produced by Brunhild Ferrari


1. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 1
2. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 2
3. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 3
4. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 4
5. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 5
6. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 6
7. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 7
8. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 8
9. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 9
10. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 10
11. Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist, Part 11


Alvin Lucier - A Sounds Waves Artist
Interview / Documentary
55:50
February 2001
Atelier Post-Billig, Paris