** condition: M/M ** Few artists within the canons of 20th Century avant-garde music can be regarded as important as pianist and composer David Tudor. Tudor premiered several John Cage piano works, including the landmark 4'33", yet his own compositional output remains largely overlooked. "My piece, Rainforest IV, was developed from ideas I had as early as 1965. The basic notion was the idea that the loudspeaker should have a voice which was unique and not just an instrument of reproduction, but as an instrument unto itself," Tudor explained.
Tudor acquired audio transducers originally developed for the US Navy. In 1968, he created the sound score for Merce Cunningham's dance Rainforest, driving sound through tabletop-sized objects and re-amplifying the result into the theater space. The breakthrough occurred in 1973 with Rainforest IV, when the work expanded from sonic composition to collaborative installation. At a New Music festival in Chocorua, New Hampshire, participants experimented with larger suspended objects that could resonate freely in space. "Instruments, sculpturally constructed from resonant physical materials, are suspended in free space; each instrument is set into sonic vibration through electromagnetic transducers. The sound materials are collected from natural scientific sources and are specific to each instrument, exciting their unique resonant characteristics," Tudor described.
"It's a large group piece—any number of people can participate. It's important that each person makes their own sculpture, decides how to program it, and performs it themselves. Very little instruction is necessary. I've found it to be almost self-teaching," Tudor explained. This recording documents a historic 1977 realization at the Center for Music Experiment in San Diego, where composer Pauline Oliveros had invited Tudor. Musicians David Dunn and Warren Burt passed through the space wearing binaural microphones, creating an extraordinary audio document best heard with headphones.
The result: a metallic forest of sound, filled with squeaks and brittle bursts more reminiscent of a city street than a wood. Rainforest IV is an ecosystem of objects that envelops you in sound—chirping, croaking, clicking, ringing—each sculpture speaking in its own voice, joining the harmonious cacophony of collective noise.
The group that emerged from the 1973 workshop became Composers Inside Electronics (CIE), continuing Tudor's work long after his death in 1996. Members included John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, and video artist Bill Viola, among others. Tudor's concepts influenced generations of artists including Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, and Stephen Vitiello.
This vinyl edition presents a rare opportunity to experience Rainforest IV in recorded form, capturing the work's revolutionary approach to sound, space, and collaboration.
