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Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.

Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.

Vespers
Alvin Lucier ranks among the most important, influential, and radical avant-garde composers of his generation. "Vespers" (1969) and "Chambers" (1968), the two works featured on this LP, witness Lucier rethinking the material and conceptual possibilities of music at every turn.
No Ideas But In Things
*2024 stock* “Don’t ask me what I mean, ask me what I’ve made.” - Alvin Lucier The American Alvin Lucier is one of the most significant composers of New Music in the twentieth century. Being one of the first representatives of live electronic music, he explored in his works the nature and the effect of sound phenomena such as resonances, echoes and interferences, with the boundaries between installation, performance, composition and science becoming blurred. In the present documentary film by Vi…
Sounding Spaces (9 Sound Installations)
*2024 Stock * English / Japanese Book (Hardcover, 80 pages) with interviews and explanations about the works presented during the exhibition of the same name held @ ICC Tokyo, july 11 - september 29, 2003.
Fame di Vento
Huge Tip! Fame di Vento is Manuel Zurria's latest work. A triple CD to evoke the many suggestions and projects that have taken place in recent years, full of collaborations, of the Sicilian flautist. Fame Di Vento is also an idealized homage to Alighiero Boetti, a nomad by culture and vocation. In his footsteps, Manuel draws on the most diverse cultures, from the Lithuanian mystics to India and Sicily, from just-intonation to European-style minimalism. As he has already done in the past, Zurria …
Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II
Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II continues Black Truffle’s documentation of the late work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. Like the first volume of the series, the two works recorded here were written for The Ever Present Orchestra, an ensemble founded in Zürich in 2016 to perform Lucier’s work exclusively. At the core of the music Lucier wrote for the ensemble is the electric guitar, an instrument he began to e…
One Arm Bandits
"One Arm Bandits is an hour-long piece in four parts, scored for four cellists. The cellists play only open strings, thus using only their right arms, never fingering the strings with the left hand. Recorded in Alvin Lucier's dining room, this work features cellists Tyler J. Borden, Laura Cetilia, Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann. Lucier oversaw and produced the recording, and approved the final takes. One Arm Bandits was an important project for Alvin Lucier. The idea for the piece goes back to…
Alvin Lucier: Navigations
*2023 stock* “It is not enough just to play the right notes at the right time in the right way; one must also have the right consciousness. It places the performer in the role of explorer of the interior in order to produce, and being still in order to be active.” — Pauline Oliveros "These words, spoken by Pauline Oliveros, remind us of how fundamental an influence Alvin Lucier has had on the development of new music and its interpretation; they remind us of our role as explorers of sound, and o…
I Am Sitting in a Room. Archival Recordings 1969–2019
A truly mind-blowing deep dive into one of the most important works within the canon of 20th Century experimental music, stretching across 3 LPs and 2 CDs, as well as containing a 124-page book, Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room. Archival Recordings 1969–2019" on Sound On Paper Editions gathers 10 previously unavailable renderings of this astounding composition, created by the composer between 1969 and 2019. Illumining an unprecedented level of depth, nuance, and insight from a work that ca…
Swing Bridge; Sizzles
This release brings together two works by Alvin Lucier centered on the pipe organ, a perfect instrument for Lucier’s compositional practice. Both are first recordings.“Swing Bridge” was commissioned by this record’s ensemble, the Australian Art Orchestra, for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ. The score requires that specific pipes be removed from the organ and run into three specially constructed offset chests, each accommodating two pipes (six pitches total). These pipes are manipulated by t…
Alvin Lucier’s Reflexive Experimental Aesthetics (Book)
Making audible what is usually inaudible, rendering sound visible in an unusual way, and facilitating a spatial experience of sound­—this is what constitutes the pioneering work that makes Alvin Lucier one of the most important representatives of American music in the second half of the twentieth century. The stated aim of the study at hand is the detailed historical and theoretical exploration of Alvin Lucier’s work, with particular focus on his decidedly reflexive experimental aesthetics. The …
Illuminated by the Moon (4LP + Cd+ Book) box
** Lats copies. Special signed edition, number 1-17 ** Epic release by Alvin Lucier, with a load of previously unreleased material compiled in one incredible box set. 4 x LP (180 grams), 1x CD and an extensive 120 pages lavish book plenty of previously unseen images. Safe to say that this one’s aimed at the Lucier aficionados, but it’s a real eye-opener for anyone into the far reaches of experimental music and the sonic art. Given the cost and scale of the project it's unlikely these will ever g…
Nothing Is Real ...
*2022 stock* The focus of the pieces by Alvin Lucier on this CD is on the phenomena of resonance – sympathetic vibration – in many variations. “Time and again I find myself having to pare away any musical gestures in a work in order to uncover the true idea in a piece,” says Alvin Lucier.The composer knows which ideas he wants to liberate. But the process of causing the environment to resound is always a collaborative, interactive project. It needs someone who is creatively engaged, even obsesse…
Out of Our Hands
These companion pieces have similar orbits as they were not only both composed in Middletown, CT (where Alvin and Jordan lived for a number of years), but are about Middletown, at least from a starting point. Alvin’s piece — a homage to the location of the house in which he recorded “I am sitting in a room” back in 1969 — continues his study into slow-moving glissandi and carefully crafted beating patters by interweaving three string players within a minor third (voiced by two vibraphonists). Th…
Reflections (Book)
528 pages. English Edition. Collection of Interviews, Scores and Writings by American composer Alvin Lucier during the years 1965–1994,  offering a wonderfully complete look at Lucier's musical activities through the years. Alvin Lucier (1931-2021) was an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included…
Bird and Person Dyning / Microphone / Straws / La Maquina de Cantar / Tempo Furioso / Luna Cinese (6LP in bundle)
Special bundle of all six seminal Cramps albums re-issued by Dialogo. At long last, after decades out of print, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, dives into the legendary catalog of Cramps, bringing forth vinyl reissues of six of the most singular and important experimental albums of the 1970s: Alvin Lucier's "Bird and Person Dyning", David Tudor's "Microphone", Steve Lacy's "Straws", Horacio Vaggione's "La Maquina de Cantar", Costin Miereanu's "Luna Cinese" and Martin Davorin Jagodić's "Tempo F…
Bird and Person Dyning (LP)
At long last, after decades out of print, joining their growing Cramps Records Reissue Series, Dialogo brings us the long-awaited vinyl reissue of Alvin Lucier's "Bird and Person Dyning", the composer's first solo LP. As legendary as they come, and easily among the most important and groundbreaking efforts in experimental music ever recorded, this is Lucier at his most visionary. Issued in a limited edition of 300 copies of black vinyl, with fully remastered audio, housed in a sleeve that beauti…
Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators
* In pocess of stocking * Alvin Lucier is one of America’s foremost experimentalists, challenging the fundamental principles of music and focusing on acoustic phenomena and how listeners perceive them. Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators explores the acoustic ‘beating’ effects and tuning phenomena of sine waves against piano tones. This new XL version expands the extraordinary listening experience in a work described by Nicolas Horvath as ‘immersive, intense and enigmatic’. Lit…
Criss-Cross / Hanover
Black Truffle present the premier recordings of two recent works by legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier. Lucier has been crafting elegant explorations of the behavior of sound in physical space since the 1960s and is perhaps best known for his 1970 piece I Am Sitting In a Room (LCD 1013CD). He has written a remarkable catalog of instrumental works that focus on phenomena produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches, often using pure electronic tones produced by os…
Works For The Ever Present Orchestra
**Deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material** Black Truffle’s documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer, as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier’s works. At the heart o…
Desert Plants
**Essential reading!** Walter Zimmermann interviews Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, John Cage, Philip Corner, Jim Burton, Phil Glass, Steve Reich, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, Joan La Barbara, Pauline Oliveros, David Rosenboom, Richard Teitelbaum, Larry Austin, James Tenney, J. B. Floyd (about Conlon Nancarrow), La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Charles Morrow, Garrett List, John Mc Guire and Ben Johnston (about Harry Partch).
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