Alvin Lucier – “Nothing is Real” // The Beatles - “Strawberry Fields Forever” - What is really real?

With “Nothing is Real” Lucier represented parts of the melody of “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles in a very different and distinct manner.

In comparison to the original song, “Nothing is Real” really does seem to represent a surreal piece of sound and space. While “Strawberry Fields Forever” offers endless roadtrip-vibes and, in combination with the video and some background knowledge on The Beatles and their popular times, underlines the hippiesque surroundings that the band members seem to convey through sound and picture, “Nothing is Real” presents something very distinctive from that to me. 

The sound is rather calming, not so overly cheerful and offers a more focused system to the listener. What Lucier creates with the piano and the teapot seems like an unraveled version of “Strawberry Fields Forever”. The echoes that are generated with the help of the teapot and build sound systems of their own made me think of a very interesting but very complex aspect while listening. The part of the lyrics where The Beatles sing the chorus “Let me take you down ‘Cause I’m going to strawberry fields Nothing is real” defines the title of the work of Lucier. The aspect that stuck with me throughout listening was whether Luciers work started right where “Nothing is real” was enacted by the singers. This may be a very abstract perception but it kept me going throughout listening to Lucier. 

It is not a secret, that “Strawberry Fields Forever” has a somewhat trippy aspect and touch to it and the phrase “nothing is real” adds to that. What if Lucier wanted to fill this void with his interpretation and form something that is indeed real? Or maybe he wanted to underline the importance of this phrase by questioning which sounds or echoes are actually real? By transforming, echoing, repeating and forming new sounds, Lucier made me imagine other instruments and sounds that were not there in reality. He transformed a simple piece into something that, when closing my eyes and simply listening, made me feel like listening to a whole room full of instruments and persons playing them, like an orchestra. When opening my eyes again and looking at the video, where Quatuor Bozzini played the piano and used the teapot to create sound, I realized that what I had imagined and what I had tricked myself into hearing was actually not real at all. 

This circumstance seemed to me as confirming the statement by The Beatles that nothing we perceive and think of as real actually qualifies as such. What we do is, we imagine quite more than there actually is and build something surreal out of our imagination, just like Alvin Lucier did with his creation of sounds.