Elevator Music 15 features Annea Lockwood’s A Sound Map Of The Hudson River, an aural journey spanning from the source of the river—Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack peaks—downstream to the Lower Bay and into the Atlantic Ocean. Originally commissioned by the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York, the piece is being re-exhibited at the Tang Museum as part of the exhibition Lives of The Hudson. Since 1970, Lockwood has recorded rivers in numerous countries, not to document them, but rather to capture the sound moving water creates when one listens intently to the complex mesh of rhythms and pitches.
Each stretch of the Hudson River has its own sonic texture, formed by the varying terrain, weather, season, and human environment, whose sounds are intimately woven into the river. The Tang’s installation will feature a numbered wall-sized map and video screen, which will identify what location you are listening to, and the date and time the recording was made.