Dhoormages is made up of three short pieces, “Variation on a door, not a sigh,” “I am sitting in a…,” and “Waterrun,” three tributes to other electroacoustic works, Henry’s Variations on a door and a sigh, Lucier’s “I am sitting in a room” , and Truax’s Riverrun. You don’t need to know any of these pieces to enjoy this one. You may want to get to know them, just for their own sakes, of course. And you will enjoy this piece more once you do.

The main sound source (for all three) is indeed a squeaky door hinge. The hinge of “Variation” is indeed very lovely, but it’s the low, low frequency tam tam-like sounds and the startling turntable swoops and dives that make this piece for me.

The room of “I am sitting in a…” is full of people, though their voices are a mere murmur as from far far away. The hinge is king in this piece, with lots of reverb, and the low frequencies are more prominent here. If you like loud hinge squeaking, and low inside-a-huge-watertank sounds, then you must get this piece.

The last piece of Dhoormages is “Waterrun,” in which the hinge sounds are so transfigured (most of them) as to be unrecognizable, as are the water sounds in Truax’s Riverrun. This is an extremely gorgeous, noisy piece.

Not to harp on a theme or anything, but I wish Dhoormages were longer, too.

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