After a two week break (sadly, an unforeseen one), XEN RADIO returns with our occasional “single-track” show. This week featured Alvin Lucier’s Small Waves. This unique work is best described by the record company’s website:
six glass vessels, some partially filled with water, are mounted on pedestals scattered around the performance space. Microphones are inserted into the mouths of the vessels, then routed through compressor-limiters to amplifiers and monitor speakers. During the course of the performance, the volume levels of the amplifiers are raised and lowered, causing feedback at pitches determined by the size and shape of the containers and their proximity to the loudspeakers. Following a sequence notated in the score, the players closely tune with the feedback strands causing interference patterns. At times, two water pourers empty water from one container to another, raising and lowering the pitches of the sounds from those containers.
Episode 20 (September 10, 2019)
Alvin Lucier (Arditti String Quartet, Roland Dahinden & Hildegard Kleeb) — Small Waves (1997)
XEN RADIO broadcasts Tuesdays at 09:00 EDT / 13:00 UTC on KPISS.