Terry Riley - In C (1968)

One of the foundational texts of minimalism, and one that still gets interpreted afresh every so often.  A large part of the enduring appeal of In C to new generations of musicians is that the basic score is so open to interpretation: it simply consists of 53 phrases, to be played in numbered order; skip some if you like, and change the instrumentation around at will.

This, though, was the album that preceded them all.  Recorded just four years after Riley devised the score (with a little help from Steve Reich who suggested the underlying 'pulse'), this March 1968 recording was Riley's first album for CBS Masterworks, and significantly raised his profile.  Riley plays sax, Jon Hassell trumpet, Margaret Hassell 'the pulse', and the other instruments are oboe, bassoon, clarinet, flute, viola, trombone, vibraphone and marimbaphone.  The piece spends its opening minutes gathering momentum, and then opens out into a self-sustaining fractal web of hypnotic bliss.  More Riley next week.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
Rainbow In Cologne
Descending Moonshine Dervishes