Customer Reviews

I Am Sitting in a Room

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The description of what takes place on this disc is well covered, so I will try to add a few things which haven't been addressed.

One of the most illuminating aspects of the sound on this disc is Alvin Lucier's slight speech impediment. He has a small stuttering problem which causes him to repeat the first consonant of a few of the words in his long description of the piece. Well at first, as the listener, it is merely a bit awkward to hear him annunciate his words in this way. However, once the transformation occurs of his natural speaking voice into the almost digital-sounding overtones produced by the room, his "awkward" stuttering has morphed into the predominant rhythmic structure of the piece!

This is a prime example of Alvin Lucier's main intent with every work he composes: to alter and rearrange our conventional perceptions of the world around us. I'm sure Lucier's work probably seems strange to many - the folks who keep shelling out commissions for performances and recordings of the same old works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, etc. must find it atrocious!- "Is this even music??" they might ask. Well, it is true that Lucier's work is highly conceptual - he might have chosen any other medium of artistic expression besides music and still attained similar results, but let's evaluate what he's done here....

In "I am sitting in a room," Lucier reads aloud the instructions which constitute the very piece he is performing, leaving no aspect of the process a mystery. The slow evolution required for his speech to transform into the warbled, melodic overtones means that the listener has to hear each step of the transformation take place, gradually revealing to the listener the implied, imperceptible nuances already present in Lucier's speech when the piece began, not to mention a greater understanding of the nature of sound.

In addition, one of the most important aspects of this piece is its particularity in regard to place. Depending on the "room" in which this piece is performed, one will not necessarily achieve similar overtones, or even the same rate of transformation (for example, a room with more echo/reverb will result in a greater rate of change), as Lucier achieves here. For possible future performances (and kids, DO try this at home), this dependancy on environmental acoustics allows for the same sort of malleability and artistic choice a conductor might have when deciding how to interpret a symphony.

Within this existential 45 minute performance, Alvin Lucier not only fascinates us with a serene, eventually lucid spoken-word performance, but he also restructures our very notions of both space and speech, all while telling us how he's doing it! As great as Beethoven's 9th may be, I don't think it can make that kind of a claim.

So to wrap things up all nice and succinctly, I will tell you this: Alvin Lucier is a man who once performed his own percussion piece ("Music for solo performer") using only his alpha brain waves. Need I say more?

At the recent Whitney Biennial exhibition on 20th century art, the section of the exhibition devoted to "sound art" was titled "I Am Sitting in a Room" after this work. It is an absolute classic, a beautiful piece of work that remains true to a rigorous compositional device but manages to contain many layers of meaning and beauty. It is fairly accessible, although it does require a good forty minutes of concentration.

Alvin Lucier has taught composition at Wesleyan University in Connecticut for the past thirty years, and it is a tribute to his genius and generousity that so many experimental composers have sought him out there. I only wish that his writings would be published to a broader audience.

There's simply no accounting for taste. I've read all previous reviews and repect their sincerity, but from my experience with this disk, the concept simply overshadows the end product. It's intriguing from the outset, but becomes a bit tedious over time.

I'm not a musician or particularly learned in that field, but I first heard this on a late-night "new music" radio program 25 years ago. The host had explained exactly what Lucier was doing, and the resulting recording was remarkable. I never forgot it. I bought it here recently, and after listening to it again, it's still fascinating.

To the reviewer who mentioned Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet": GAAAAAAH!!! Now, that is a recording that drives me nuts. But people still remember it :) I think there's also a version where Tom Waits sings.

Having seen Alvin Lucier live I have since been interested in his sound in space experients. I enjoyed 'Nothing is Real' (the concert hall to teapot performance) but had resisted this title. I know it his considered a classic piece and I took the plunge.

As the passes of the recorded text increase so the 'music' is revealed. This is a remarkable piece and you are soon into waves of sound as the speech 'deteriorates' exposing as if by magic the effect of the resonances of the room on the repeated recording.

The resistance was based on the assumption that it would be similar to other tape manipulations - it is not and Lucier has produced a unique work of exquisite beauty.

All I want now is 'Bird and Person Dyning' on CD!!

If you are into abstract art, and minimalism, then I highly recommend this work. But I have to admit I prefer Crossings, also by Lucier.

Let's see, below is a list of works related to, or similar to I Am Sitting in a Room: perhaps It's Gonna Rain, by Reich; Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me yet, by Bryars and a hobo; maybe some poetry by Brian Gyson; John Cage; something by Robert Ashley, somewhere? Help me!