Richard Lerman [ Music of Richard Lerman, 1964-87 ] 2CD [EM1063DCD]

+CD-Extra program
+English/Japanese text
+Scarce photos
+36P booklet
+Liner notes written by Arthur J. Sabatini and Richard Lerman

Richard Lerman's classic 1982 Folkways LP Travelon Gamelon (Music for Bicycles) plus selected works spanning the years 1964 to 1987. This deluxe two-CD set with extensive liner notes also features CD-extra programs including scores and film footage of performances.

Born in 1944, Richard Lerman has maintained a constant fascination with sound and an open-hearted love of exploration and experimentation, working with piezo microphones, self-invented equipment and everyday objects in an attempt to capture and amplify sounds which might otherwise escape our notice, making magic from the mundane. "Travelon Gamelon", his best-known work, featured on Disc One of this set, is an excellent example of Lerman's musical alchemy, using amplified bicycles as a sound source, powered by masses of American and Dutch cyclists in Promenade Versions, and performers on stage in Concert Versions.

The second disc of this set features selected works from Lerman including tape music from 1964, works for traditional instruments, vocalists and live electronics from the 1970s, and pieces for live electronics and self-made instruments from the 1980s. An excellent, all-encompassing look at Lerman's questing, multi-faceted work.

This fine collection of music, augmented with extensive liner notes by Arthur J. Sabatini and Lerman himself, also including scores and live performances in the CD-extra programs, is an essential purchase for anyone interested in the John Cage/David Tudor continuum of American musical exploration.

As a sound artist, performer and composer, Richard Lerman traverses worlds of sound and music. For over forty years, he has been gathering, scanning, seeking sounds and creating works that weave through nature and draw upon living communities and memories in notable landscapes. (Some of his work references regrettable historical events such as the "disappearance" of Chilean citizens under General Pinochet's regime and the internment of Japanese-Americans during the World War II.) His recordings and performances rely on everyday objects and traditional instruments as well as basic, self-invented equipment and state-of-the-art technologies, as they were available since the 1960s. Lerman's scores and instructions are deceptively simple, yet produce extraordinary results. As a filmmaker, sound documentarian, installation artist, and collaborator with other artists, he demonstrates that his conception of sonic reality and musical experience is interdependent with visuality, motion, actual sites and moments, theatricality, live audiences, and politics. As the various pieces convey, his art takes him from studios and concert halls to cities and the outdoors worldwide. (Arthur J. Sabatini)

DISC 1:
Travelon Gamelon (Music for Bicycle)
1. Promenade Version [Boston, MA, July 2, 1979] 6:04
2. Concert Version [Pittsburg, PA, June 6, 1981] 14:16
3. Promenade Version [Amsterdam, the Netherland, April 27, 1982] 5:08
4. Concert Version [Amsterdam, the Netherland, April 27, 1982] 14:28
5. Concert Version [Wellington, New Zealand, July 31, 1986] *Previously unissued

=CD-Extra program=
Score of "Travelon Gamelon"
Movie of "Travelon Gamelon" [Vancouver, Canada, Feb 22, 1987]

DISC 2:
Selected Works
1. For Two of Them [1964] 7:36
2. Sections for Screen, Performers and Audience [1975] 9:22
3. End of the Line: some recent dealings with death [1976] 14:18
4. Accretion Disk, Event Horizon, Singularity [1979] 8:37
5. 2 1/2 Minutes for a BASF Loop [1980] 13:22
6. Soundspot [1982] 2:10
7. Music for Plinky and Straw [1986] 11:49

=CD-EXTRA program=
Score of "How to Make A Tape Delay for 2 Sony Walkman Pro Cassette Recorders"
Score of "Accretion Disk, Event Horizon, Singularity"
Score of "2 1/2 Minutes for a BASF Loop"
Score of "Music for Plinky and Straw"
Movie of "Music for Plinky and Straw"