APPEARANCE/MUSIC FOR SOLO PERFORMER COMPOSITIONS BY TOSHI ICHIYANAGI AND ALVIN LUCIER

Description

An absolute rarity! These historical recordings of a concert given in 1967 at Hope College in Michigan by John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and David Tudor, performing compositions by Ichiyanagi and Alvin Lucier, were recently discovered in archives in Japan. Lucier's piece, "Music for Solo Performer," was the first musical composition to use human brainwaves. This 1967 performance, published here for the first time, is one of the earliest realizations of the piece, featuring Tudor, Ichiyanagi, and Lowell Cross, who use alpha waves to activate a wide range of percussion instruments. This proto-industrial version is heavily influenced by the amplified performance techniques developed by Cage and Tudor in the 1960s; it is very different from the Lucier/Pauline Oliveros realization from 1982 on Lovely Music. Ichiyanagi's 1967 composition, "Appearance," combines live electronics with acoustic instruments and adds Cage to the list of performers. It is the same piece that was released in 2006 by Omega Point, but the source tape used here is said to be the master tape, resulting in a significant improvement in audio quality. These recordings, available on LP and CD, are historically important and musically fascinating. The release includes liner notes by Ibe Osamu from Omega Point, explaining how the tape was discovered, as well as liner notes from sound artist Minoru Sato, a researcher specializing in Lucier's work who was in contact with the composer during his lifetime. Ichiyanagi contributes a note on "Appearance."