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LP
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OI 001-2024LP
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A live performance of four early works by Steve Reich: "Four Organs," "My Name Is," "Piano Phase," and "Phase Patterns." This 1970 performance marked an important moment in San Francisco Bay Area new music history with the triumphant return to the East Bay by Reich, who studied at Mills College with Luciano Berio and performed the 1964 world premiere of Terry Riley's seminal In C at the San Francisco Tape Music Center. The resonant acoustics of the University of California at Berkeley Museum's concrete interior were especially appropriate for "Four Organs", with its long additive sustained chords over a maraca pulse. 180-gram LP. Black vinyl. Limited edition of 500.
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LP
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FOX 006LP
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New York-born experimental composer and abstract keyboardist Steve Reich was an important pioneer of minimalism. After studying with jazz pianist Hall Overton, Reich learned composition at the Julliard School of Music and later at Mills College, a hotbed of experimental music situated at the foot of the Oakland Hills, east of San Francisco. He later began experimenting with audio tape as a music medium at the San Francisco Tape Music Center with important figures involved in early electronic music experimentation, including Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, and Phil Lesh (bassist of the Grateful Dead) and more importantly with Terry Riley. Reich subsequently composed a number of film soundtracks and in 1967 collaborated with Oliveros and Richard Maxfield for the release New Sounds In Electronic Music. Phased patterns, sonic loops and electronic percussion were focal points from the mid-60s onwards. Information, Transmission, Modulation and Noise is an astounding release, though many reviews repeat inaccurate information about the recordings featured on it. The music was first broadcast to the world in the early hours of November 6, 1970 on KPFA in Berkeley, California, when Reich and woodwind wizard/percussionist Jon Gibson made an unscheduled appearance at the studio, armed with a number of recent recordings. The first to air was a masterful version of Reich's "Four Organs", taken from a performance given at the Guggenheim in New York in May 1970, featuring regular collaborators Philip Glass, Art Murphy, and Steve Chambers on combative organs, along with Reich, plus Gibson on non-stop maracas; it is strongly contrasted by the raw, mesmerizing power of a percussive piece recorded in Ghana in the summer of 1970, made with members of the Ghana Dance Ensemble playing traditional Ewe instruments; according to Reich's introduction during the broadcast, the piece is called "Gahu", featuring master drummer Gideon Alewoye on the large agboba drum, dancer Freeman Dongo on the smaller kidi, dancer Thomas Annan on the even smaller kagan, and Reich and Steve Scott on axatse rattles, along with an unidentified player on a gonkogwe or gungong bell. On the B-side of the disc, Reich presents an equally mesmerizing rendition of Glass' "Music In Similar Motion", recorded at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis in May 1970, featuring Glass, Steve Chambers and Art Murphy on organ, Gibson and Richard Landry on soprano saxophones, Beverly Lauridsen on amplified cello, and Reich on an electric harpsichord.
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FOX 002LP
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Alternative Fox delivers a landmark release in the history of minimalism with a live performance documented from one of the genre's key figures: Steve Reich. Recorded live at Berkeley University in the 1970s (home also to key minimalism figures Terry Riley and La Monte Young), this performance sees Reich deliver some of his now legendary compositions, such as the shifting tape-loop experimentation of "My Name Is", whereby vocals are cut-up, looped, and played at different speeds to create constantly shifting combinations. Similar to his "It's Gonna Rain", it's utterly disorientating and makes for an absorbing listening whilst doffing a cap to cut-up techniques championed by early Dadaists and later Brion Gyson and Burroughs. The two-part "Piano Phase" demonstrates the effects of playing minimalistic notes on two separate pianos at slightly different speeds, so the two drifting an out of phase with each other. The effects are highly meditative, causing subtle rhythmic mutations throughout the piece, whilst "Phase Patterns" explores a similar technique albeit with a grainer electric organ. Last but not least, "Four Organs" explores the effects of sustained chords on multiple organs, set amongst a perpetual maraca, whereby the combination of interlocking chords on the separate instruments amalgamate to form a dense, textured tonal tapestry. 180 gram vinyl.
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MODE 300LP
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"This release couples two of Reich's 'sextets' for the first time: the Sextet of 1984 and the Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet of 2007, which also makes its first appearance on LP. A striking difference between the two pieces is that the rhythmic world of Sextet mostly consists of a single-meter grooving, while Double Sextet works in the angular, off-kilter shifting meters reminiscent of Reich's Tehillim (also of Stravinsky). Ekkozone impart a uniquely chamber music feel and color to these works while maintaining their propulsive character. Liner notes by Adam Sliwinski. LP lacquers and mastering by veteran Scott Hull at Masterdisk. Plated and pressed by RTI, California. Danish percussionist and conductor Mathias Reumert lives and breathes contemporary classical music. An in-demand soloist, he explores new percussive territory while remaining a committed interpreter of yesterday's masterworks. As creator and leader of the acclaimed ensemble Ekkozone, he explores the boundaries between classical, world and experimental music in performances at rock and jazz festivals. Ekkozone is a Danish crossover ensemble that masterfully explores the lines between classical, world and experimental music. Formed by Mathias Reumert in 2013, the ensemble enjoys a special connection with Reich's music and has performed a large part of his oeuvre, including several performances of Music for 18 Musicians."
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2LP
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SV 097LP
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Double LP version. "Steve Reich's Drumming is regarded as one of the most important musical works of the last century. Distilled through his studies of African percussion in Ghana during 1970 and Balinese gamelan music, Reich revolutionized our understanding of polyrhythms, sculpting a new sonic territory to illuminate the radical potential of Minimalism. Divided into four sections, performed without pause, Drumming is written for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice. The singers recite melodic patterns that mimic the sounds of the instruments, gradually rising to the surface and then fading out. The overall effect can be transfixing -- pulling listeners into the rhythm and possessing a raw immediacy, directness and energy. The premier performances of Drumming took place in December 1971 in New York City -- first at The Museum of Modern Art, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally at Town Hall where this recording was made -- and featured the composer along with a cast of longtime collaborators including Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky and James Ogden. Originally released in 1972 by gallerist John Gibson in a small private edition, Drumming represents the culmination of Reich's investigation into rhythmic phase relationships and its early realization captures a remarkably organic feel, especially compared to the more widely known version on Deutsche Grammophon from 1974. This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time CD release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes."
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2CD
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SV 097CD
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"Steve Reich's Drumming is regarded as one of the most important musical works of the last century. Distilled through his studies of African percussion in Ghana during 1970 and Balinese gamelan music, Reich revolutionized our understanding of polyrhythms, sculpting a new sonic territory to illuminate the radical potential of Minimalism. Divided into four sections, performed without pause, Drumming is written for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice. The singers recite melodic patterns that mimic the sounds of the instruments, gradually rising to the surface and then fading out. The overall effect can be transfixing -- pulling listeners into the rhythm and possessing a raw immediacy, directness and energy. The premier performances of Drumming took place in December 1971 in New York City -- first at The Museum of Modern Art, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally at Town Hall where this recording was made -- and featured the composer along with a cast of longtime collaborators including Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky and James Ogden. Originally released in 1972 by gallerist John Gibson in a small private edition, Drumming represents the culmination of Reich's investigation into rhythmic phase relationships and its early realization captures a remarkably organic feel, especially compared to the more widely known version on Deutsche Grammophon from 1974. This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time CD release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes."
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LP
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SV 096LP
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2024 repress. "Steve Reich remains one of the most important figures in 20th century music. Though he studied at the prestigious arts institutions Julliard and Mills College, by the mid- 1960s Reich set about dismantling the very orthodoxy that he had been trained in. Forming a new musical language based on repetitive processes, Reich became established as part of the so-called 'Big Four' of New York minimalists (along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip Glass). Reich's influence can easily be seen today in both the classical world and contemporary pop music. 'Four Organs' is the ultimate minimalist composition. Performed by Reich, Glass, Art Murphy and Steve Chambers, four identical Farfisa organs strike a single chord and gradually lengthen each note to produce polyrhythms between the players. Anchored by Jon Gibson's stoicallysteady pulse on maracas, the piece deconstructs its opening burst to a sustained mass of sound -- stretching the tones to create (in Reich's words) 'slow-motion music.' Inspired by Reich's early training on drums, 'Phase Patterns' treats the keyboards like tuned percussion instruments: a basic rhythm pattern is played in unison and almost imperceptibly increases tempo to move out-of-sync. Each progressive cycle emphasizes unique figures that are not generated by an individual alone, but rather emerge from the communal expression of the group. Originally released on Shandar in 1971, Four Organs / Phase Patterns is one of most highly regarded avant-garde recordings in the past 45 years. This first-time vinyl reissue features cover photography by artist Michael Snow and is recommended for fans of Neu!, Glenn Branca and Tim Hecker."
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