New Zealand-born American composer-performer Annea Lockwood (born in 1939) has a lifelong fascination with the visceral effects of sound in our environments and through our bodies and the way sounds unfold and their myriad «life spans» serve as the focal point for her works. For six decades now, she has carved out a multifarious and fluid existence that has orbited various musical movements and approaches.

Glass World, which was released originally in 1970  on Tangent Records, relates to Lockwood’s sonic philosophy and practice, as she articulates it: «I have become fascinated by the complexity of the single sound». Room40 label’s Lawrence English notes, who remastered the original recordings under the guidance of Lockwood, notes that this album documents Lockwood’s first significant studies into sound, object and listening, initiating her focus on timbre and new sound sources. It is a recording that captures Lockwood in a moment of profound fascination with a rather familiar material, glass. The twenty-three short pieces allow single glass sounds – glasses, water gongs, mobiles, bottles and jars that are shaken and vibrating – to resonate, fully.

Glass World invites the listener to an immersive listening experience. It asks us to suspend our common listening practices and lean deeply into the material nature of sound with Lockwwod’s pioneer manner of creating and listening to sound. Glass World still radiates an innocent and suggestive vibrational intensity today. The album includes a book with a long-form conversation of Lockwood and English, touching Lockwood’s work on Glass World and visiting upon her interests and passions, and through doing so revealing a certain perspective that has guided her ways of being, and ways of making.

Eyal Hareuveni

Annea Lockwood (composer)