La Monte Young is eighty-six years old when I finally track him down for an online interview. After a period of inactivity during the Covid pandemic, he is preparing for a performance at the Dream House. This venue on the top floor of a Church Street townhouse in the TriBeCa area of New York is a permanent sound and light installation, in operation since 1993. It is also the home he shared with his wife, the artist Marian Zazeela, whom he married in 1963 and who passed away in March 2024 at the age of eighty-three.
'In Indian classical music, the musicians like to say "Nada Brahma", which means "Sound is God", he hollers at me on the video call. He is wearing his signature leather waistcoat, sunglasses, a black hood and a white cotton shirt that matches his long white beard and moustache. 'They say it all the time,' he adds. 'It's a mystical experience, you can't pin it down completely but you can go after it, and the more you go after it, the more you get a sense of satisfaction, the more you feel "I am doing the right thing with my life"."
For Young, to understand the power of music and how it affects us psychologically, physically, spiritually and emotionally is his entire life's work. 'What are we after all?' Young asks rhetorically, before giving me his answer:
We're a set of vibrations that we have been exposed to as we grow up in life. Once you start to study sound it never stops, it's a remarkable study. We're dealing with vibrations, and vibrations in sound are audible vibrations, but there are a lot of other vibrations too. Importantly, though, the way you deal with vibration has to do with how you feel comfortable in life.
