On 1 December 2021, influential composer, sound artist and music professor Alvin Lucier died in his home in Middletown, Connecticut.
Lucier, who was 90 at the time of his death, spent much of his decade-spanning career examining the physics of sound. He presented countless long-form pieces, avant-garde experiments and installations over the years, with I Am Sitting in a Room – a landmark 1969 work that explored spatial acoustics – his best-known piece.
UIQ label head and Hyperdub affiliate Lee Gamble is among the plethora of contemporary artists who credit Lucier as an inspiration. As a tribute, Gamble has curated a specialist mix that celebrates the late composer’s work and methodology.
“Alvin Lucier was one of a number of artists dealing with sound and music who taught me that if you flip the listener’s attention from melody and harmony to perception, things get really hallucinogenic,” Gamble says. “Physical and psychoacoustic, but also neurological and distant. You get to think about the magical aspects of sound and music, and sound as entity; something that exists invisibly in space with you. RIP.”
Alvin Lucier tribute – Mixed by Lee Gamble
Alvin Lucier tribute – Mixed by Lee Gamble
On 1 December 2021, influential composer, sound artist and music professor Alvin Lucier died in his home in Middletown, Connecticut.
Lucier, who was 90 at the time of his death, spent much of his decade-spanning career examining the physics of sound. He presented countless long-form pieces, avant-garde experiments and installations over the years, with I Am Sitting in a Room – a landmark 1969 work that explored spatial acoustics – his best-known piece.
UIQ label head and Hyperdub affiliate Lee Gamble is among the plethora of contemporary artists who credit Lucier as an inspiration. As a tribute, Gamble has curated a specialist mix that celebrates the late composer’s work and methodology.
“Alvin Lucier was one of a number of artists dealing with sound and music who taught me that if you flip the listener’s attention from melody and harmony to perception, things get really hallucinogenic,” Gamble says. “Physical and psychoacoustic, but also neurological and distant. You get to think about the magical aspects of sound and music, and sound as entity; something that exists invisibly in space with you. RIP.”
