Alvin Lucier

^kinda how I feel about "bird & person dyning", went to a performance of it when I was 19 & have wanted to hear it again ever since. Talked to lucier afterwards, really nice man!

Ward u r in for a treat!

ty guys, i will be there

milton that curtis gig looks sweet - are there any particular charles curtis recordings you wld rec - i remember seeing a dbl alb (?) w/ a helix cover (??), that wld prob be the most common item here in the uk

xyzzzz - come to glasgow!

Ward - re: Curtis, see my post from 2006 with Charles' recording, the link still works.

Have to say that Glasgow gig looks amazing and worth the trip. Let you know if I can make it near the time.

xp

you're talking about this one: http://www.discogs.com/Anthony-Burr--Charles-Curtis-Alvin-Lucier/release/776910

I like it -- good overview of the oscillator + instrument beating pieces, well recorded. gotta say the packaging is unusually good, not only beautiful but really re-enforces the music.

These worth checking out too:
http://www.discogs.com/%C3%89liane-Radigue-Pour-Charles-Curtis-Naldjorlak/release/1542131
http://www.discogs.com/La-Monte-Young--Marian-Zazeela-Just-Charles-Cello-In-The-Romantic-Chord-2002-2003/release/1059636

my favorite of the oscillator + instrument pieces is probably Lucier's ground-zero recording - http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd1015.html -- each instrument acts so differently with the sine wave, you get a lot more variety than you do when two dedicated instrumentalists do their thing for two whole discs. my second favorite is 'Panorama' - http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd1012.html

xyzzzz,i am in NYC the week before the Lucier weekend, la-di-da - (and def gonna go to the Dream House on one day of my trip) - but you wld of course be a welcome guest in the dream house here - now, to read yr post above

ty again milton, will study

OK, so the performance of 'Bird & Person Dyning' was def the highlight of this weekend, for me - sort've reminded me of Ashley's Automatic Writing in that it had the almost subliminal feel/effect of being whispered to, throughout. In fact, seeing the Lucier works performed made it clearer to me that his project is, at least in part, an attempt to bring to light the 'hidden' language of feedback, electricity, amplification, etc - a secret sound world that we don't normally hear or recongise, in the course of the everyday, but that runs perpetually, just out of reach. The piece for cello and amplified vases also illuminated this, with the cellist almost coaxing sound from the pots, like a snake-charmer. 'Still Lives' wasn't quite as effective, this time; the drones didn't seem to be loud enough, and funnily enough, a lack of volume was also the problem w/ the o'malley/ambarachi performance, both of them playing their amplified guitars flat on a table using e-bows, opposite each other, but not really generating enough of a noise to get the full speaker/feedback interaction-thing going. O'malley later got the chance to bring the skronk on a massive Dumitrescu piece for orchestra and electric guitar that closed the fest - lots of metal bashing, percussion, cosmic cataclysms, stirring stuff.

It involved four parade sized bass drums with ping pong balls on fishing wire dangled in fron of the heads..
very low pitched square waves were played via speakers into the open end of the drums causing the ping pong balls to swing at various speeds. created a sort of sparse polyrhythm free of human hands and looked amazing.

This was also in situ throughout the fest, and was great to watch and experience - there was also an element of suspense or surprise, wondering when the ping pong balls would stir against the drums. Took a couple of pics of this on my phone, hope to upload them later.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc497/WardFowler/Photo0061_zps74c62541.jpg

sounds like an amazing show

found a copy of this recently: http://www.amazon.com/Chambers-Scores-Alvin-Lucier/dp/0819550426/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368553358&sr=1-2

worth it. the early scores are all prose, pointing at and digging around the ideas behind the music; I found it as inspiring as Silence or A Year From Monday

Fantastic report Ward, real shame I couldn't be there.

http://www.alvin-lucier-film.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahY5IjbkZU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtS2mnYFQw&feature=youtu.be

5 year anniversary

https://twitter.com/alvinlucier

Follower #250.

This looks positively amazing. Stoked for the 120 page book(let) alone.

This compilation, if it can be called that, sorely misses 'Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas', 'Music On A Long Thin Wire' and especially 'Bird and Person Dyning', but perchance it's the best Lucier compilation out there. Can't wait for this box to be dropped at my doorstep.

wouldn't call that one a comp. new performances of older works are reboots. saw the sonic arts union show at issue project room a few months ago and lucier's new works for sinewaves were new territory; instead of keeping one or two slow moving sinewaves as foundational sounds to prompt the acoustical beating of the live instruments, there are quite a few sinewaves in motion, each with diverging / converging trajectories, so the latticework / beating coming from the electronics are already completely busy - not minimal at all, crazy sounding. like some kind of audio illusion bridge between radigue and amacher. it was amazing lucier was even there in person for the show - walking very slowly now, but on top of it, black lives matter t-shirt, surrounded by old friends

Ha, that's amazing, and heartening to hear. The guy's 87 and wearing a BLM shirt! Good for him.

Call it a comp, call it a reboot: I'm excited about it either way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Pnb_ZE7Hs

Lucier is compelling throughout. Majestically ignores the interviewer for much of the interview. (I hate this interviewer but he gets good results so maybe he is good?)

“How do I get in touch with John Cage?” “Have you tried calling him?”

AL: [Fascinating detailed explanation of upcoming piece]
Interviewer cuts him off: [bored and unimpressed] “Okay. Something to look forward to.”

has anyone figured out why red bull boosts avant garde music

RIP

RIP. I kind of guessed this when I saw this thread bumped.

:(

It is a cliche to name a "genius" who "changed" music, listening or recording for everyone who followed. Often it is a bullshit honorific. I am however sincere when I say Alvin Lucier, genius, invented new ways to hear, execute, record and think about music and sound. Requiescat.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) December 1, 2021

RIP

Oh fuck I’m glad I saw at 2019 Big Ears.

Also in a recent documentary I discovered he used the same brand of crushed tomatoes to make marinara sauce as my family does.

:-(

Was so lucky to see him do Music for Solo Performer. Just a little old man sitting quietly while everything erupted around him.

First mention of Alvin Lucier in the NYT, August 28, 1963 pic.twitter.com/Ni32QySlCP

— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) December 2, 2021

Uh

Hey, um, can we talk about this factoid in the art forum Lucier piece? pic.twitter.com/t31bE1laSh

— Unseen Worlds (@Unseen_Worlds) February 3, 2022

waht

"I Am Being Cloned In A Room (In Perth)"

"I am sitting in a body different than the one I was in before"

"I am recording the sound of my soul and am going to play it back into the body"