Son[i]a #226
Alvin Lucier
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A key figure in post-Cage experimental music, Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), is one of a kind, a composer who, as James Tenney says, makes his fellow musicians find themselves “having to revise our basic (and often unconscious) assumptions – our self-evident axioms about music.” Driven by a curiosity to understand “how things work” (an innocent and unprejudiced curiosity that Tenney compares to that of a child), Lucier always seems ready to disappear within sound.
It is as if his fascination with the sound phenomenon leads him to avoid interfering in its manifestation. His work is thus by no means based on self-expression or on compositional interventions. Instead, he allows sounds to “be themselves” without pushing or directing them in any way.
In this podcast, Alvin Lucier talks about the need to listen carefully, the composers that have accompanied and influenced him over the years, and the role of space and technology in his work, among many other things. Near the end, he also explains some interesting facts about “I am Sitting in a Room”, one if his best known and most enigmatic works.
Music references: “Music on a Long Thin Wire 1”, 1977
Jonáš Gruska
The slovak musician, sound artist, and maker Jonáš Gruska is a proud amateur, honouring the French origin of the term (to love what you do). Curiosity and passion run through pretty much everything that Gruska engages in. In our conversation ranging from his site-specific sound installations to his hand-crafted microphones and audio tools, his recent interest in mycology, and his playful exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum, Jonáš used the word 'fascination' quite a lot. We talk to Jonáš about resonating spaces, resonating surfaces, tramways, self-taught electronic circuitry, field recordings, fermentation, mushrooms, and unusual microphones.
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy talks about the body as an echo chamber and as a sensible and sentient presence, about silence as the “infinite extremity of sound”, and the role of sound and listening in the context of political practice.
Systems
The role of formalised systems in music making.
Judy Dunaway
Judy Dunaway talks about tenor balloons, improvisation, greyhound buses, Western music, the AIDS crisis, studying with Alvin Lucier, working day-jobs and learning to play a well-tuned piano.
Thinking (through) the ear
Can we think through listening? Seth-Kim Cohen, Christoph Cox, Julian Henriques, Casey O’Callaghan, Peter Szendy and Salomé Voegelin discuss why thinking should not be at odds with resonating...
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with Alvin Lucier that we were unable to include the first time around.
"Pillars" and "Yellow Man with Heart with Wings" by Robert Ashley
This programme transmits "Pillars", a new piece for radio by Robert Ashley, pioneer of opera-for-television and the use of language in a musical setting.