Terry Riley - Shri Camel (1980)

Some more (see last two links below) of Terry Riley's just-intonation electric organ flights into deepest inner space.  Shri Camel began as a commission for Radio Bremen in 1975, with an early performance the following year; this CBS studio recording dates from 1978, and was finally released two years later.

This puts its sound closest to Descending Moonshine Dervishes, also dating from 1975 but not released until the early 80s.  By the mid 70s, Riley had fully integrated his earlier studies under Pandit Pran Nath into his tape delay (and then digital delay) sound on the organ, and could play ever more intricate counterpoint and variations over the ongoing pattern.  In the studio for Shri Camel, this unique Eastern-Western fusion was still all recorded live to 16-track - no overdubs, just Riley and the delay system.

The mind-melting sound that emerges works just as well here on the four shorter tracks required by a single LP as it did on Riley's hour-plus concerts.  Anthem Of The Trinity effectively acts as a 9-minute prologue, before the 11-minute Celestial Valley takes off in earnest, spinning endless notes into the cosmos.  The album's second half repeats the same formula, with the seven minutes of Across The Lake Of The Ancient Word setting the listener up for the epic finale of Desert Of Ice.

Live performance of Shri Camel, Holland Festival 1977

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Previously posted at SGTG:
In C
Rainbow In Cologne
Descending Moonshine Dervishes

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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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Rainbow In Cologne
Descending Moonshine Dervishes

Terry Riley - Rainbow In Cologne (rec. 1971, rel. 2016)

Mentioned this archive release way back when posting Descending Moonshine Dervishes, so it's long overdue a post of its own.  Rainbow In Cologne presents just under two hours of Terry Riley performing on "church organ" (more likely modified electric organ on Disc 1), venue(s) unspecified, recorded some time in 1971, presumably for WDR or suchlike - yep, it's one of those archive releases that raises more questions than it answers!  Whatever the recording details were, Riley's delay system is very much in evidence to create long drones and loops over which he could improvise further in these long, hypnotic raga-like compositions.

This recording surfaced three years ago on a slightly dubious label, and I suspect it's out of print now - prices have jumped right up of late.  Despite some mastering issues (i.e. glitching on Disc 1 that the label tried to explain away as part of the original recording), it's nice to have something like this available, and hear Terry Riley in a raw live recording from this early in his career.

First up is the slow to catch fire, minor-key Journey From The Death Of A Friend, which would be released the following year on a French soundtrack LP.  After 37 minutes, the continuous performance segues into Riley's breakthrough composition A Rainbow In Curved Air.  Even with the lower fidelity, this and Disc 2's run through Persian Surgery Dervishes still make for stunning listening when those flurries of organ notes take flight.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
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Pandit Pran Nath - Raga Cycle, Palace Theatre, Paris 1972 (rel. 2006)

We're long overdue some raga goodness from the master Kirana singer on these pages.  Compared to the album release from the previous year (posted here), this brief live recording sets the accompanying instruments (played by Pran Nath's US students Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela) a bit further back in the mix, so that you appreciate all the better how that wonderful voice finds its way "in between the notes".

This archival release came out on Terry Riley's label in 2006, and in fact represents only a small excerpt of the ambitious Raga Cycle that the players undertook in Paris in May 1972: performing the 'night ragas' (those intended for playing at night) on a Friday night, the 'day ragas' on the Saturday, and the 'morning ragas' on the Sunday morning.  Raga Shudh Sarang and the brief Raga Kut Todi, featured here, are both late-morning ragas (from my admittedly limited research on the fascinatingly complex rules of Indian classical music), so must have been from the Sunday morning concert.  Wonder if Riley or Young have any more in their archives?

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Terry Riley - Descending Moonshine Dervishes (rec. 1975, rel. 1982)

Here's one for the minimalists, to listen to in contrast to Philip Glass' early organ works that I've previously posted.  Where the Glass pieces focus on strict notation, and work their hypnotic effect from repetition, addition and mutation, Terry Riley on the organ plays more freely around scales, modes and rhythm cycles.  In a live performance such as this one, the first Riley album I picked up and still a huge favourite, this means lengthy droning improvisation with frequent bursts of high speed notes, like warp-speed transportation through the stars.

Descending Moonshine Dervishes was recorded in November 1975 at Berlin's Metamusik Festival, but wasn't released until 1982.  Riley plays a single Yamaha YC 45D electric organ, the sound filled out by a specially built in delay and the trippy, distinctly Eastern-sounding melodies/harmonies resulting from the organ being retuned in Riley's preferred just intonation.  Download and enjoy - preferably supine in a dark room.

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Bonus Riley update, 20 August:

The new Rainbow In Cologne 2CD that I mentioned in the comments has landed!  Pleased to say it's rather good.  The recordings show their age a bit (both from 1971) but that's a tiny minus point compared to the performances, both on church organ.  The hour-long ARICA is fantastic, and I might actually end up preferring the Persian Surgery Dervishes version to the Shandar originals.  For the curious - here's a 15 minute Rainbow clip.