Album Notes

ANNEA LOCKWOOD

A Sound Map of the Hudson River

A Sound Map of the Hudson River is an aural journey from the source of the river, Lake Tear of the Clouds in the high peak area of the Adirondacks, downstream to the Lower Bay and the Atlantic.  The work was commissioned by the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY as an installation. It was incorporated into the museum’s permanent, “Riverama,” exhibit in 2003.

Since 1970 I have recorded rivers in many countries, not to document them, but rather for the special state of mind and body which the sounds of moving water create when one listens intently to the complex mesh of rhythms and pitches.

Each stretch of the Hudson has its own sonic texture, formed by the terrain, varying according to the weather, the season and, downstream, the human environment whose sounds are intimately woven into the river’s sounds.

By correlating the numbered sites on the map with the information on the reverse, you will be able to identify which location you are listening to, the date, and the time of day at which the recording was made.

— Annea Lockwood

Biography

Annea Lockwood is a composer with an unusual sensitivity to the poetic potential of sound, particularly the rich and unpredictable nature of acoustical sound. Her work frequently blends sound with movement and images to create philosophical and sensual exploration of the natural world.

Born in New Zealand, Lockwood moved to England in 1961, where she studied piano at the Royal College of Music. She attended summer courses in New Music at Darmstadt for several years, and completed her training with a year in Germany and Holland, studying electronic music and instrumental composition. In the mid-1960s Lockwood turned to electronics, mixed media and ultimately to the exploration of natural acoustic sounds. She created her famous “glass concerts,” began a series of “Piano Transplants,” in which defunct pianos are “permanently prepared,” burned, buried and allowed to decay, or partially submerged in ponds, and her archive of recordings of the world’s great rivers.

In 1973, After 12 years in England, a musical “loner,” and feeling a strong kinship with American composers such as Ruth Anderson, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros, and the Sonic Arts Union (Ashley, Behrman, Lucier, Mumma), she moved to the United States. Since then, she has toured frequently in the United States, Europe and Australasia, giving numerous performances of works such as “World Rhythms,” a multi-channel improvisatory live mix of environmental sounds such as earthquakes, radio wave transmissions from a pulsar, tree frogs and other phenomena.

In the mid-'80s, Lockwood returned to instrumental and vocal composition in works which often include non-Western instruments and explore unusual sound-colors, for example, “Thousand Year Dreaming”, for an ensemble which includes four didgeridus, conch shell trumpets, frame drumming and projected images from the Lascaux cave paintings.

Lockwood’s extensive body of work includes tape pieces, instrumental and vocal music, mixed-media performance works, installations and sound sculptures.  Her music has been presented at festivals in Europe, Britain, Australasia and the United States, and recorded on CRI, Lovely Music, Harmonia Mundi, Opus One, Finnadar/Atlantic and other labels.

Lockwood presently lives in Crompond, New York. She has been a member of the music faculty at Vassar College since 1982.

Recording Sites

A Sound Map of the Hudson River was commissioned by The Hudson River Museum, with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and Warner Communications, Inc.

The production of this compact disk was partially funded by a grant from the Dale Fund at Vassar College.

Map: Bryan Forsyth
Design: By Design

Produced by Annea Lockwood
Remastered by Tom Hamilton

©P 1989 and 2003 Lovely Music, Ltd.

LCD 2081  A D D
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