ILLUMINATED BY THE MOON (4LP/CD/BOOK) | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Black Truffle together with Bernhard Rietbrock and ZHDK present Illuminated By the Moon, a stunning box set celebrating Alvin Lucier's 85th birthday celebrations which took place in Zurich, 2013. Alvin Lucier is one of most important figures in more than a half century of avant-garde and experimental sound practice; he has no equivalent. He is among America's most important composers, a towering pillar of intellect, creativity, and beauty realized through sound. His singular body of work is focused around acoustic phenomena and auditory perception includes, among others, the groundbreaking Bird And Person Dyning, 1980's Music On a Long Thin Wire (LCD 1011CD), and 1981's I Am Sitting In a Room (LCD 1013CD), each quietly shifting the understanding of what music could be with deceptively discrete gestures, laying their mark on history and the expectations of nearly everything to come, while radically expanding the field. It is such a life, defined by such striking accomplishment, which Illuminated By the Moon, celebrates across four LPs, a CD, and book. Recorded in October of 2016 at the Alvin Lucier 85th Birthday Festival at the Zurich University of the Arts, the box gathers a remarkable range of performances of works from Lucier's life in music, from the iconic to the lesser known. It begins with wonderful stagings of "I Am Sitting In a Room" and "Music for Solo Performer" performed by the composer, before presenting the work "Charles Curtis" performed by the cellist for whom it was composed, and "Double Rainbow", a recent work, performed by the incredible Joan La Barbara. Over the course of the set's many discs, one encounters a range of works performed by Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O'Malley, Charles Curtis, and Gary Schmalzl, with further contributions by many others involved in Lucier's life and work. The collection, by offering an expanse of material otherwise unavailable in the composer's discography, opens a rare window into the breadth and range of territory which he has approached, as well as into the unique humor which has quietly bubbled through his entire career. It is a singular recording event, the likes of which are unlikely to be repeated. A worthy tribute to one of the last century's most important composers. Mastered and cut by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. 180 gram vinyl. Includes CD and 12x12", 120-page book with unseen images and various essays; Includes download code; Edition of 500.