Suspiros Del Serpis – I'm Sitting In A Room by Pavel V Matveyev

This is a documentation of an experiment I conducted during my stay at DAR (Druskininkai Artists‘ Residence) in Lithuania in September 2019.

The original is a pasodoble Suspiros del Serpis by José Carbonell García (1955). As a point of departure I took a recent recording of a 1974 vinyl record playing the melody. Due to the age of the record and the condition of the equipment used the stylus was moving back and forth repeatedly, so the same short phrase kept repeating. This accident made me think of the opportunities for re-interpreting the piece.

Inspired by Alvin Lucier's work I'm Sitting in a Room (1969), I played this recording into the room I was staying in and re-recorded it. The new recording was then played back and re-recorded, and this process repeated until the music was replaced by the resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself.

For the best experience please use your head- or earphones.