Alvin Lucier is a composer of experimental music who has been working since the 1960s in a solo setting, and with such cutting edge groups as the Sonic Arts Union, which also claimed as members fellow ’60s electronic music pioneers (and your basic, everyday legends) Robert Ashley, David Behrman and Gordon Mumma. Lucier mainly works with materials and processes that investigate acoustic phenomena and human perception of sound. He has been teaching at Wesleyan University since 1970.

Wind Shadows is a double-CD collection released in 2005 containing mostly minimal works from the late 1980s and ’90s that joins live instruments with the humble oscillator to investigate a series of beat frequencies. Opening disc one, “In Memoriam Stuart Marshall” pits a bass clarinet against a low-pitched pure wave oscillator. Belting out some super low-pitched drones, the two switch back and forth between matching unison and going slightly off kilter to produce uncanny beating effects. Next, a clarinet, trombone, violin, cello and double bass blat out single notes into a digital reverb unit set to various lengths to mimic “40 Rooms.” Similar to track one, “In Memoriam Jon Higgins” features a slow sweep pure wave oscillator that proceeds from the lowest to the highest notes of an accompanying clarinet for some slow and fast beatings. “Letters” shuts down disc one with a bunch of invigorating dissonant piano pound sprinkled with woozy clarinet, violin and cello for quite a homely slice of ear candy.

“Q” opens up disc two with an array of deep, resonant, electronic drones that sound like a fleet of taxi cabs crossing a suspension bridge while a squadron of bombers soars overhead. In the five parts of “A Tribute to James Tenney,” a double bass and an oscillator move together from high-pitched to super low-pitched string scraping and beating drones. Meanwhile, over in the “Bar Lazy J,” a clarinet and trombone engage in some held tones and silences. A cello, piano and viola offer up some sublime, shrill, microtonal drones during “Fideliotrio,” which sounds kind of like a cross between Lois Vierk’s “Go Guitars” and a Tony Conrad screechfest. Finally, the title track closes the whole set with another trombone and oscillator beat. I reccomend Wind Shadows for anyone into subtle sonic investigations that result in droneworks that are much more somber than usual.

Label: New World Records Catalog Number: 80628-2 Format: 2-CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: Disc 1: 4, Disc 2: 9 Total Time: Disc 1: 59:29, Disc 2: 78:12 Country: United States Released: 2005 More: Discogs, Forced Exposure, Last FM, Lovely Music, Official, Perfect Sound Forever, Scaruffi, Ubu Web, Wikipedia

Text ©2010 Arcane Candy

This is a reissue of an utterly original and classic work for voice and tape that was composed in 1969, recorded in 1980 and finally appeared on CD in 1990. The premise is simple and the outcome is fully out there: Alvin Lucier recites a short speech into one tape recorder, plays it back into an empty room which is recorded again by another tape recorder, and repeats the process back and forth until—38 repetitions later—the resonant frequencies of the room have gradually transformed the spoken words into an unrecognizable and transcendent cloud of ambient beauty. “By the end of the piece, with it’s magnificent ringing of architectural space, one sometimes forgets that it was a calm human voice that set the room into oscillation.”

“I Am Sitting In A Room is inextricably linked to notions of ‘home’—of a room rather than a concert hall, of sitting rather than laboring, of speaking rather than singing, of literally being in the right place at the right time. I Am Sitting In A Room conveys this sense of rightness in a way that transcends the mechanism, phenomena and text of the piece. It pulls the listener along with a process that, whether understandable or not, seems perfectly natural, totally fascinating, intensely personal and poignantly musical.”—Nicolas Collins

Label: Lovely Catalog Number: LCD 1013 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 1 Total Time: 45:21 Country: United States Released: 1990 Related Artists: Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma More: Official, Wikipedia