Alvin Lucier - Vespers And Other Early Works (2002 compi, rec. 1961-2002)

A deep dive into the possibilities of sound, courtesy of Alvin Lucier.  This collection starts off in 1969, with the clicking and rattling of the sonar dolphin echolocation devices used in Vespers.  As spartan as this might be in its sound (and it probably has to be experienced live for full spatial effect), it's also strangely relaxing.  This is followed by Chambers, devised to integrate different types of environmental sound in odd ways.  First conceived in 1968, this was a new recording made in 2002 for this compilation.

North American Time Capsule is another vintage recording, of voices put through an early vocoder - when this was recorded in 1967, it originally formed part of the Extended Voices compilation overseen by Lucier.  Another 2002 recording follows, (Middletown) Memory Space, an update of 1970's (Hartford) Memory Space.  This is the first truly musical piece on the album, and follows Lucier's original instructions for the participants to take a walk through a city, record or memorize some ambient sound, then come back as a group and recreate that sound on an instrument, while Lucier conducts everyone in terms of timing.  That, and the closing low-frequency tape work Elegy For Albert Anastasia (recorded 1961 and remixed 1963), are also oddly calming, making this perhaps the weirdest chillout album ever made.

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Previously posted at SGTG: Music On A Long Thin Wire