Each month in the magazine we play an artist or group a series of tracks which they are asked to comment on – with no prior knowledge of what they are about to hear.

In The Wire 500 it is the turn of US composer Lea Bertucci.

Here you can listen to a mix of the tracks our correspondent Clive Bell played to Bertucci during the interview, which is published in full in The Wire 500. To find out what Bertucci said about them, subscribers can read the interview in our online magazine library here. Or you can buy a copy of the magazine in our online shop.

But first, a brief biography of our subject:

Aged nine, Lea Bertucci played alto saxophone in the school band, later adding bass clarinet. But she went on to study film and photography at Bard College in Upstate New York. “The cinematic form is actually very similar to a musical composition, in that it’s a form and a structure that exists over time,” she told Jennifer Lucy Allan in The Wire 405.

A decade's worth of Bertucci’s albums ranges from solo projects to collaborations with Olivia Block, Lawrence English and Ben Vida, and the improvisor, Carnatic singer and activist Amirtha Kidambi. Bertucci has blown her sax into a world of layering, looping, field recordings and extensions of her own vocals. Her multichannel sound pieces stand alongside art exploiting highly resonant spaces. Her use of electronics aligns with her creative misuse of a tape recorder. Of Shadow And Substance (2023) is an LP of visceral compositions for chamber ensemble: “like listening to the groaning of ancestral bones from deep in the Earth’s crust”, wrote Leah Kardos in these pages.

Her installation and performing work has been seen in galleries from Madrid to Sydney, and in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Recently she has been swapping saxophone for folkloric flutes and voice. Her new solo album The Oracle is released on Bertucci's own label, Cibachrome Editions.

The Jukebox was conducted online while Bertucci was visiting southern Utah.

Tracklist (with timestamp)

Kelly Jayne Jones (00:00)
“A Fire That Had To Burn Forever”
From The Reed Flute Is Fire
(Takuroku) 2017

Dickie Landry (10:10)
“Fifteen Saxophones”
From Fifteen Saxophones
(Unseen Worlds) 2011, rec 1974

Albert Ayler (21:09)
“For John Coltrane”
From Live In Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings
(UMG) 1998, rec 1967

Terry Riley (34:50)
“Untitled”
From Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band "All Night Flight" Vol 1
(Cortical Foundation) 1996, rec 1968

Mayumi Miyata (1:15:22)
“Hyojo Choshi”
From Shō Infinity
(Fontec) 2023

John Butcher (1:30:52)
“Sympathetic Magic (metal)”
From Resonant Spaces
(Confront) 2008

Éliane Radigue (1:36:42)
“L'Île Re-Sonante”
From L'Île Re-Sonante
(Shiiin) 2005

Olivia Block (2:31:46)
“1”
From Olivia Block
(Another Timbre) 2017

G Lucas Crane (2:45:28)
“You've Got It Made”
From Evil Eye Broadcast
(Nonhorse) 2006

Maddie Ashman (2:51:47)
“toffee”
From toffee
(Bandcamp) 2025