Two Circles

“Broken Line.” Alvin LUCIER: Carbon Copies (1989); Risonanza (1982); Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums (1980); Broken Line (2006). Trio Nexus: Erik Drescher (glissando fl, instruments), Sebastian Berweck (pno, instruments), Martin Lorenz (perc, instruments). mode records 281 (1 CD) (www.moderecords.com).

“Two Circles.” Alvin LUCIER: Three Translations of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti (2008)¹; Two Circles (2012)²; I am Sitting in a Room (1968)³; Fideliotrio (1986)⁴. Alvin Lucier³ (voice), Simone Conforti³ (electronics), Alter Ego: Manuel Zurria^1,2 (fl, a-fl), Paolo Ravaglia^1,2 (clar), Aldo Campagnari^1,2,4 (vln), Francesco Dillon^1,2,4 (vlc), Oscar Pizzo^1,2.4 (pno). mode records 295 (1 CD) (www.moderecords.com).

Consider the standard behavior: musicians play, audiences listen. With Lucier, there’s much listening for the musicians, very often preparatory labors involving selecting sounds or objects that can make sound. Sometimes the music evolves at a slow scale, very often there are repetitions. Most likely there will be electronics, as Lucier’s instrument was essentially the physical sound wave.

Carbon Copies asks players to create an environmental recording, mimic it, play without it, then explore the sounds that they were making. If done well – and Trio Nexus does very well – the original tape blends into the mimicry until the sounds are freed in the concluding moments. Risonanza asks the group to find objects that resonate. An oil drum and a cymbal are bombarded with sine waves that result in sympathetic vibrations. The thick metallic chords suggest alarms or runaway mechanical items, whining at incessant pitches.

Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums is aptly titled. While Risonanza utilized narrowly pitched sines, in Music for, live players control sine waves which cause ping pong balls to vibrate against bass drums. Given all the effort, the result sounds like rain.

The works without electronics yield slowly. Some players drift from pitch to pitch while others remain fixed in place. In Three Translations of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti, the piano tosses notes like pebbles into a pond, as flute, clarinet, violin and cello glide gradually. We’re meant to focus upon changing timbres and microtonal shifts. Likewise in Fideliotrio, viola and cello drift around steadfast piano.

The idea behind Two Circles is that an electronic sound can move continuously whereas a keyboard attack fades, players must stop to breathe or pause briefly when changing bow direction. Held tones are matched against moving tones to create vibrations and overtones. Instruments and sines blur into a distorted accordion. Broken Line asks a live flute to play glissandos on a specially designed instrument alongside steady piano and vibraphone. The varied attacks and decays create blurry microtonal chords as piano fuses into sliding flute and wriggling vibes.

Lucier died in 2021. In 2012, at the age of 81, he (re)recorded his self-describing and self-destructive classic I am Sitting in a Room, a miracle of feedback and resonance:

“I am sitting in a room the same 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.”

Continually played back and recorded, the room’s frequencies contribute feedback which slowly eats into Lucier’s monologue. Electronic humming and whistling increasingly overwhelm. It could be something captured at the bottom of the ocean, or during an arctic storm. Compared to previous versions, Lucier appears shaky, which lends a bittersweet air. He is no longer here, but left us much.

— Grant Chu Covell, la folia, June 2025.  https://www.lafolia.com/a-fortifying-ramble-with-oil-drum-and-toaster/