Alvin Lucier & Matthias Kaul – Nothing Is Real... (2003)

Acclaimed for his focused study of acoustics, I Am Sitting in a Room (1970), Alvin Lucier has continued to work with raw sounds and their resonances in a variety of challenging experiments, which can only be described as sui generis. Indeed, so important to Lucier is William Carlos Williams' dictum, "No ideas but in things," that things themselves (musical instruments, everyday appurtenances, found materials, etc.) suggest the occasions for their use and provide the content and forms to be employed. With versatile avant-garde percussionist Mattias Kaul performing on amplified percussion, piano, and other resonant objects, Lucier is able to draw out the characteristic sonorities of items and create soundscapes that sometimes resemble ambient music in overall effect. Not so in the clangorous Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra for amplified triangle (1988) or the disturbing vocalizations and clacking sounds of The Sacred Fox (1994), both of which should be played at a fairly low volume to avoid discomfort. But most of Lucier's pieces are gentle and mysteriously soothing while at the same time thought-provoking and perhaps even moving. Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) for piano, amplified teapot, tape recorder, and miniature sound system (1990) warrants attention for its well-known source material and unusual audio manipulation, but also for its haunting delicacy. Wergo's sound is terrific.