Alvin Lucier

*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 Viola Rusche and Hauke Harder, Lucier is shown on concert trips to The Hague and Zug (Switzerland). Starting with performances of early live electronic works of the 1960s and 1970s and ending with the world premiere of the most recent ensemble piece “Panorama 2” (2011), the composer examines and comments on his work, granting insight into the beginnings of his pioneering work: his days as founding member of the group of composers “Sonic Arts Union” (1966–76), his relationship with John Cage and David Tudor, as well as his work at the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he has been teaching since 1970. One of Lucier’s key works, “I Am Sitting in a Room” (1970) is introduced as a central structuring device in the film.