Dream House

La Monte Young formulated the concept of a “Dream House” as early as 1962. Together with Marian Zazeela, he created a light-filled house with everlasting, voluminous sound: A perceptible, living music that writes its own history into which one can immerse oneself, as if into another lifetime. “Dream House” is a continuous, live electronic sound and light environment. Through tone generators, located at various positions throughout the room, pure tones are generated in very specific vibration ratios. In their totality, the intervals and chords emerge as a result of new patterns of vibration and sound images which change depending on the position of the visitors in the space. By changing semitones and a magenta colored light, the atmosphere of a distant time emerges inviting the visitors to linger a while and to return.

La Monte Young is considered the real founder of musical minimalism. As early as the 1950s, the meanwhile 76 year-old American composed works with reduced material as well as long-lasting tones “drones” and his “dream chords”. Both his critical examination of Anton Webern’s works and modern Europe, such as the avant-garde discourse around John Cage and, no less, his intense work with the Japanese Gagaku and Indian art music, intuitively led him to his minimalistic concepts and inimitable compositions. Among his chief works are “The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys” and “The Well-Tuned Piano”, which are based on his systems of tuning.

“The Just Alap Raga Ensemble”, which follows the classical music tradition of northern India, is the most recent work of the artists La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. This was preceded by many years of studying the Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath and his close collaboration with various other soloists.