I Am Sitting in a Room

Alvin Lucier (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Alvin Lucier
• Audio CD (December 1, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lovely Music
• ASIN: B00000INI7
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,760 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'process music' classic, May 7, 2000

By 

DAC Crowell - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Sitting in a Room (Audio CD)

Ever xerox something, then xerox that xerox, then xerox the xerox of the xerox, then...OK, I'll stop. But you get the idea. Eventually, you get a strange...something...that does and doesn't resemble what you started with. Well, that's what Alvin Lucier did here. First, he recorded a short speech that actually is an explanation of the process he's using...recording himself, then playing back that recording in the room and re-recording it again and again, until the acoustical properties of the room 'remove any imperfections' his speech may have. After a few repetitions, you start to hear changes. But over the last half, the really amazing changes take place, as Lucier's voice morphs into a resonating 'whunnngggzinngggwhirrr whunngggwheeengggg', etc sound, not only getting rid of the 'imperfections', but all identifiable speech characteristics altogether! True 'ambient music'...as it uses the actual ambience to generate the music. Anyway, it's wonderful to see this on CD, as now the whole work is present in one single piece, as opposed to the original LP version which required a side change. A very trippy, must-have piece for those into electronic and electroacoustic music.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful experiment in acoustics, May 17, 2000

By 

Jeffrey Belcher "gigusa" (East Hartford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Am Sitting in a Room (Audio CD)

Alvin Lucier sat in a room and recorded a piece of text that explains the process of the piece. He played back the segment of text through speakers and recorded it through microphones on the other side of the room. He then took that recording and repeated the process, subtley enhancing the natural reverbaration and harmonics of the room with each recording. By the end of this 45 minute piece, the text is incoherant and all you're left with is an eerie and haunting amalgomation of overtones and harmonic texture. It is really incredible to hear the piece slowly unfold into a vast desert of returns and space. Highly reccomended for those ready for something very diffferent.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique work of art, August 20, 2009

By 

Charles Campbell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Am Sitting in a Room (Audio CD)

Think of making a photocopy of a document on a low quality copy machine , over and over again, until the copy is unrecognizable from the original. That is what Alvin Lucier does with sound. Everyone should hear this at least once.