I am sitting in a room is one of several works I have made since 1968 which explore the acoustic characteristics of natural and architectural spaces.  In this work several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played pack into a room and re-recorded there many times.  As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the room are reinforced and grow louder; the others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound.  All the recorded segments, from the original to the final copy, are spliced together in the order they were made and constitute the final and complete version of the work.

I am sitting in a room was composed in 1970 and was first performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on March 25, 1970.  The original version consisted of fifteen generations of the composer’s speech and was accompanied by Mary Lucier’s Polaroid Image Series, which used a similar copying process.  A second, longer version was made in 1972 to accompany the dance Dune, choreographed by Viola Farber for her company and first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 21, 1972.  Since then, many versions have been realized by other musicians, including one in Swedish by composer Lars-Gunnar Bodin for broadcast by the Swedish Radio in 1979.

This recording was made by the composer on October 29 and 31, 1980, in the living room of his home in Middletown, Connecticut. It consists of thirty two generations of the composers speech and was made expressly for this Lovely Music record.

Tape editor:
Bob Bielecki