metalhead gallery

"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."

Alvin Lucier, (1970)


I am Sitting in a Room [1970]



01. I am Sitting in a Room [45:24]

Download @ Megaupload

Alvin Lucier conceived this piece to be recorded by any person narrating any text in any room. Therefore some reinterpretations have been made of this work, including a live, interactive digital version by digital/new media artists Joel Kraut and David Tinapple. Anyways, my intention was not only to bring Lucier's piece to this blog, but also two other records inspired by it, one by americans Tribes of Neurot and the other by argentineans Zann Sessions.

A Resonant Sun [2002]
(No cover)



01. Erode [1:46]
02. The Tide [8:35]
03. From The Hill [9:46]
04. A Sun That Never Sets [5:07]
05. Falling Unknown [13:06]
06. From Where Roots Run [3:42]
07. Crawl Back In [7:21]
08. Watchfire [8:29]
09. Resound [0:29]
10. Stones From The Sky [10:49]

Download @ Rapidshare

Tribes of Neurot, Neurosis alter ego, took Lucier's idea and used it to remix their record A Sun that Never Sets, but instead of playing it through speakers and recording it with a microphone like Lucier did, they used tapes to play and record, over and over again until the tapes started to deteriorate and the resonant frequencies showed up. Apparently the process took much more than what would if it were done acoustically, and the results can be heard in this record.

Zann Sessions Vol3. Disharmony [2009]



01. Disharmony Pt. 1 [32:22]
02. Disharmony Pt. 2 [22:06]

Download @ Snapdrive

This Zann Session was recorded by Gustavo García with an acoustic guitar (the first part) and Carla Bissioli with her voice (the second part). Their performances were recoded and played back into a room again and again until the original sound is almost indistinguishable from the resonace, following Lucier's method. Nevertheless the mix is not necessarily in the order of the rerecording process, one cannot follow it sequentially making the piece a complement between the resonance and the original unmodified sound.