Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in ... - Aaaaarg

ONCE AND FUTURE INNOVATORS 183
Sonic Arts Union performance, Sveriges Radio, Stockholm, 1971 May 4. From left:
Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, David Behrman. Photo courtesy of
Gordon Mumma.
Forming the group was largely a matter of practicality. Some of the members
had been receiving invitations to perform in Europe and elsewhere, but the
expense of producing a concert on one’s own would have made it economically
impractical to accept such offers. By teaming up, they could pool their
equipment and eliminate other costs by serving as both technicians and
musicians. Because there was often little or no payment for such performances,
the union served as a hedge against unnecessary expenses.
The Sonic Arts Union toured North America and Europe into the early ‘70s.
Even though they pooled their equipment, they didn’t often collaborate on
compositions except by helping each other out during performances. Each
composer would bring a piece to a concert and the others would act as musicians
by manning the equipment. “A Sonic Arts Union concert was about 1,000 miles
of wire and all these little boxes that plugged into each other,” recalls Ashley. 19
The Sonic Arts Union was happening during a period of transition for each of
its members. Behrman was nearing the end of a successful period of record
producing for Columbia Records, during which he added the names of Cage,
Oliveros, Babbitt, Lucier, Reich, Riley, Pousseur, and other avant-garde
composers to the repertoire of artists represented on the Columbia Masterworks
label of classical music recordings. Even as he worked with the Sonic Arts
Union, he was busy touring with the Cunningham Dance Company and assisting