The notion of recording Alvin Lucier’s music is an odd one. Lucier – veteran American experimentalist, doyen of sonic trickery – is obsessed with what sound does in space. He bounces sine waves off walls and teapots, and generally mucks about with our perception of where noises come from and how. A Lucier performance is as much installation as concert. How to convey that on disc? The excellent Trio Nexus manage it here, with evocative performances full of detail and imagination. Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums (1980) captures the daft satisfaction of ping-pong balls papping cross rhythms against vibrating drum skins; Carbon Copies (1989) is an uncanny play on kitchen noises and bird song; and In Risonanza (1982), synthesiser sine waves cause cymbals and oil barrels to resonate, and the effect here is mellow and sonorous. Broken Line (2006) is a relatively conventional trio in which a flautist plays gentle glissandos against vibraphone and piano long notes. It’s the most “recordable” work on the disc, but, in the end, its directness makes it the least magic.
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