In Alvin Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in a Room”, Lucier explores the extremes that one can take with sound. Throughout the entire piece, Lucier records himself reciting a phrase, which is continually repeated and re-recorded on tape. With each new recording, Lucier’s phrase becomes increasingly harder to discern, slowly blending into the resonant frequencies of the room in which he records. A single phrase becomes an abstract soundscape, where the drone and decay of noise completely replace any recognizable aspect of the original recording.
What I found extremely interesting when listening to this piece was the use of resonant frequencies to create abstract sound art. In the latter half of the piece, I started noticing different, new sounds that were actually being created through the process of re-recording (overtones & low end frequencies). Lucier almost uses the recordings and the room’s own resonant frequencies as an instrument, producing completely new sound from a completely different source. Before listening to this, I would have never expected that a single recording and a room would be able to create such an intriguing auditory experience.