Alvin Lucier: (Žižkov) Memory Space

Klangfield organizes the third concert in the Auditoryreset series, which will be dedicated to the composition Memory Space by the American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, and in the second part of which the christening in Punct of the CD recorded Roland Dahinden: Theater of the Mindwhich was recently released on Moving Furniture Records. This is followed by Theatre of the Mind.

Alvin Lucier is an essential composer of the American post-war avant-garde, and (Hartford) Memory Space (1970) is among his the most famous compositions from the late sixties and early seventies (along with {I Am Sitting In A Room* from 1969). It is a text score with instructions for the musicians to go out of the concert hall and use any means (in their memory, on paper, or a recorder) to record a given period of time, which, after returning to the hall, they try to reconstruct for the audience as objectively as possible using the sounds of their instruments, without excessive interpretation or improvisation. The version performed at Žižkov in Prague will therefore, in accordance with the instructions, be called (Žižkov) Memory Space.

Roland Dahinden is a Swiss trombonist, composer and conductor, known to Prague audiences primarily as the conductor of the PMP Orchestra. He studied with Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA, and as a performer he collaborated with important figures of jazz, contemporary and experimental music, e.g. John Cage, Peter Ablinger, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Braxton, and Christian Wolff.

The composition Theatre of the Mind for bass clarinet and electronics was commissioned by the Stichting Mousai foundation, which focuses on raising awareness of Parkinson's disease and mental health in general. It is based on the composer's interviews with patients undergoing deep brain stimulation, which has effects similar to dopamine, so that it often promotes the need for activity and creative expression even in people who have not shown tendencies towards it. The unprecedented mental activity contrasts strongly with the gradual loss of control over the body, and can lead to the feeling that the mind is trapped in a dying body. The composition was performed for the first time at the Ostrava Days of New Music festival in 2021.

The composition (Žižkov) Memory Space will be performed by Gareth Davis, Luan Gonçalves, Ian Mikyska , Elia Moretti, Jakub Švejnar, Mikuláš Mrva, Theatre of the Mind will be played by Gareth Davis and Mikuláš Mrva.