condition: M/M
The single canonical LP document of David Tudor's long-running participatory installation, recorded January 1980 at the Akademie der Künste in West Berlin during the Für Augen und Ohren (For Eyes and Ears) exhibition organised by the Berlin Festival Society and the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm. Two binaural sides; recording and mastering by John Driscoll of Composers Inside Electronics. Headphones essential.
Rainforest began in 1968 as Tudor's score for Merce Cunningham's dance of the same name. In summer 1973 at the New Music in New Hampshire Festival in Chocorua, Tudor presented the piece to a workshop of young composers (Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Linda Fisher, Ralph Jones, Martin Kalve, Bill Viola); they became Composers Inside Electronics, the ensemble that has performed and developed Rainforest IV for the half-century since. The work consists of suspended sculptural objects (metal, wood, plastic, found materials) fitted with electromagnetic transducers and contact microphones, with each performer routing audio signals through their own sculpture's unique resonance. The 1981 Edition Block LP, in René Block's gatefold sleeve with photos and German/English notes, was distributed in the US and Canada through Gramavision. Performers on the recording: Tudor, Edelstein, Jones, Kalve.
