La Monte Young - Drift Study 4:37:40-5:09:50 PM 5 VIII 68 NYC

Although La Monte Young was the music editor of the SMS folios, this manifested in only two musical audio recordings in the series, as the other multiples featuring sound were oriented toward poetry or conceptual works. The first of these was Terry Riley's "Poppy Nogood's All Night Flight (The First Ascent)", while the second was this work of La Monte's. One likely explanation for the short run of audio works in the SMS series was the duplication of open reel tapes for the sets proved impractical. In fact only 25 copies of each of these two reels was made and those just in order to satisfy prepaid subscriptions. In 1988, the Reinhold-Brown Gallery completed these editions by filling the empty 5" reel boxes with cassette recordings of the original pieces. In the case of the La Monte Young work, the reel box was decorated by the calligraphy of his life partner Marian Zazeela. The audio work is neatly divided into two half hour segments. A rare solo recording (as most of his work as a performer has been in collaboration with Zazeela), this is also an excellent example of why Young is so often associated with the minimal aesthetic. Using only a Moog synthesizer whose oscillators are tuned closely together, the work is an exploration of the subtly varied beat frequencies heard as the oscillators drift in and out of phase with each other over time. In this way it is a very static piece whose changes are in the minute details which are best appreciated when played a high volume - a requirement has often stated as necessary for the appreciation of his works in order to fully appreciate their harmonic details. Because the work deals with relatively pure tones, the sound changes quite noticeably depending on the position of one's head in the listening space. By using the low pass filter on the Moog synthesizer Young focuses on the the more physical lower frequencies creating a meditative and concentrated listening experience. However on the second the tone is doubled being at once more confrontational and engaging. Although not widely heard at the time due to its limited circulation, the work prefigured that of many other artist working with long forms works with minimal changes. In particular it is very similar to work by Eliane Radigue on the ARP synthesizer, who might very well have been one of the few to hear the work at the time as her then husband Arman had work included in that same issue of SMS.