Using motors and various pieces of metal, the sculptures of New Zealand artist Len Lye not only move but also emit strange sounds. Lye choreographs twisted sheets of metal and whirring surgical steel into compositional forms that belie their apparent randomness. No mere dusty museum pieces, the sounds his kinetic works produce are every bit as unearthly and unsettling as anything created electronically.
These recordings were made with a simple yet appropriate stereo miking technique that mimics the human ears and to me is the next best thing to experiencing these pieces firsthand. Although they weren’t originally intended to be heard independently of the sculptures, that there exist visual counterparts to these alien soundscapes only whets my imagination. A six foot tall section of shimmering metal hits upon a cork ball in “Blade,” inducing a sense of danger in me as the oscillations vary dramatically in speed and volume. The variation of this piece, “(Big) Blade,” has a similar effect, while the swirling crashes of “Flip and Two Sisters (Trilogy)” made me even more apprehensive, though enjoyably so. At the other end of the dynamic spectrum, “Grass” soothes with strands of flexible steel brushing against each other as the base of the sculpture tilts back and forth. “Fountain” achieves a similar effect, albeit by different means.
It’s easy for an album like this to rest upon the laurels of historical significance, but in this instance the aural pleasure it gives far exceeds such considerations.
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