After Reich's initial experiments with phase music, he moved on to exploring pulse -- music that had no relation to melody, but would repeat phrases of either one or several notes, increasing then decreasing in volume as long as the musician had the stamina. When repeated with several musicians playing around one key and starting them off at different times, the result was a piece that continuously evolved, sounding like a night drive through a neon city with bright sounds appearing on the horizon, comin   [ read more ]

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These historical recordings were difficult to find (usually on out of print compilations) for a long time, so it's gratifying to have them readily available in one place. The two important tape pieces here from the mid-'60s, "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain," have their sound sources originating in police brutality and apocalyptic evangelism. Reich takes his sources and turns them into two short tape loops repeated rapidly as they gradually go out of synch with each other -- what's revealed are the    [ read more ]

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Simply put, Drumming is, along with some of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach, one of the most fascinating pieces of first-generation minimalism. The version recorded for Elektra/Nonesuch in 1987 ranks among Reich's masterpieces. The 60-minute continuous work features one basic rhythm pattern. Throughout four segued movements it is multiplied, played in canon on various percussion instruments. "Part I" is for four pairs of tuned bongo drums; "Part II" for three marimbas (played by    [ read more ]

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This late-'80s work finds the minimalist composer mixing acoustic and taped material to great effect. The disc's centerpiece is "Different Trains," a work that frames Reich's impressions of his boyhood train trips between his mother in Los Angeles and his father in New York; Reich also intersperses references to the much more harrowing train rides Jews were forced to take to Nazi concentration camps. Using the fine playing of the Kronos Quartet as a base, Reich layers the work with the tap   [ read more ]

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Although Reich's music during the '80s, as he gained in popularity, was increasingly written for larger, lusher ensembles (with, oftentimes, the concomitant loss of "edge"), he occasionally and happily reverted to more contained compositions such as those included here. "Sextet" is pared down to four percussionists and two keyboardists (the latter including synthesizers) and evokes early pieces of Reich's Drumming while incorporating his ongoing use of longer melodic lines. In five sections, it    [ read more ]

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Steve Reich has always been at the forefront of technology while preserving his love for acoustic instruments. Three Tales is a collaboration with the cinematic artistry of Beryl Korot, and marries the worlds of historical events and Reich's minimalist and multi-layered combination of musics with the psychodrama of digital visual possibilities. Reich, in the liner notes, dismisses the idea that he is embracing new media while simultaneously scoffing at the "advances" of humankind as sensation   [ read more ]

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By the '90s, a number of record labels began to re-investigate some of the earlier, pre-fame works of minimalist composers, both established figures (such as Reich, Glass, and Riley), as well as those who were less well-known. This collections gathers together several of Steve Reich's compositions from 1967-1970 (several years before his magnum opus Drumming), including three pieces for keyboards and three brief performances of an unusual work for freely swinging microphones. {&Phase Patte   [ read more ]

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This is a record that serves two purposes: first to offer a retrospective of Steve Reich's work over the course of three decades and second to showcase the strength and virtuosity of New York's contemporary ensemble Bang on a Can. Both are extraordinary. The disc opens with Reich's "New York Counterpoint" (1985), scored for clarinet and recording tape. The score indicates that the performer is to lay down 11 tracks and perform live over them in performance. The modern recording process generally   [ read more ]

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Although not as well known as Drumming or Music for 18 Musicians, 1981's Tehillim has earned its place next to those works in Steve Reich's canon. It's arguably his most mature and fully realized work, taking the various strands which had intrigued him before (including African percussion, the human voice, and the power of subtly changing patterns) and developing them in new and interesting ways. The title is Hebrew for "Psalms," and the chants the female vocals develop throughout are indeed lit   [ read more ]

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Although not as well known as Drumming or Music for 18 Musicians, 1981's Tehillim has earned its place next to those works in Steve Reich's canon. It's arguably his most mature and fully realized work, taking the various strands which had intrigued him before (including African percussion, the human voice, and the power of subtly changing patterns) and developing them in new and interesting ways. The title is Hebrew for "Psalms," and the chants the female vocals develop throughout are indeed lit   [ read more ]

CD $16.13