A Man in a Room, Gambling is a 1992 collaboration between Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz and composer Gavin Bryars. Created as a series of ten, five-minute programs for broadcast on the BBC, A Man in a Room, Gambling aired, in accordance with Muñoz' concept, "like the weather forecast." Each five-minute "episode" features the foreground element of Muñoz reading a text describing how to perform subtle, unnoticeable card tricks during a poker game to put the edge in your favor. In the background, Bryars' lonely, black and white ...
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A Man in a Room, Gambling is a 1992 collaboration between Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz and composer Gavin Bryars. Created as a series of ten, five-minute programs for broadcast on the BBC, A Man in a Room, Gambling aired, in accordance with Muñoz' concept, "like the weather forecast." Each five-minute "episode" features the foreground element of Muñoz reading a text describing how to perform subtle, unnoticeable card tricks during a poker game to put the edge in your favor. In the background, Bryars' lonely, black and white music, as played by the Balanescu String Quartet, deftly follows the action described in Muñoz's texts, accenting the mood but never intruding. Some understanding of Muñoz's work as a sculptor does not hurt comprehension of A Man in a Room, Gambling -- his realistic, human figures stand silent in an odd juxtaposition to one another, evoking an alienated stillness that is disquieting, yet calm. This recording represents the same mood almost exactly -- the notion of a man, alone in a...
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