I Am Sitting in a Room

Conceptual art is not always artistically successful, but Alvin Lucier’s acoustic experiment I Am Sitting in a Room is engaging both in concept and in execution. To create the music, Lucier recorded himself reading a paragraph-long statement in an empty room. Then he replayed the recording in the same room, recording the playback onto a new tape. He repeated the process until the echoes of the room built up to the point that the words became unrecognizable and were replaced with reverberant buzzes, booms, and what sounded like gongs and bells. This piece has to be heard to be understood, and once heard will change the way you experience ambient reverb for good.