Steve Reich
Steve Reich, born in New York in 1936, is one of the founders of minimalism, though his music has moved well beyond any pure version of it. His early breakthrough was phasing: two tape loops, or two players, starting in unison and slowly drifting apart, as in It's Gonna Rain and Piano Phase. From there he built the pulsing, interlocking ensemble music of Drumming (1971) and the landmark Music for 18 Musicians (1976). His innovations, audible processes, repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have shaped contemporary music, especially in America, more than almost anyone's.
Steve Reich, born in New York in 1936, is one of the founders of minimalism, though his music has moved well beyond any pure version of it. His early breakthrough was phasing: two tape loops, or two players, starting in unison and slowly drifting apart, as in It's Gonna Rain and Piano Phase. From there he built the pulsing, interlocking ensemble music of Drumming (1971) and the landmark Music for 18 Musicians (1976). His innovations, audible processes, repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have shaped contemporary music, especially in America, more than almost anyone's.
Drumming, Recordings on ECM
* Discounted Bundle * Two three-LP boxes, released together on 2 October for Steve Reich's ninetieth birthday, covering the years 1974 to 1982 in full.
Drumming; Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ; Six Pianos is the Deutsche Grammophon se…
The String Quartets
Reich's three string quartets on one record for the first time: Different Trains (1988), Triple Quartet (1998) and WTC 9/11 (2010), each setting the live quartet against tape. New readings by New York's Mivos Quartet, made with the composer's involve…
Drumming
The 1974 DG recording of Drumming by Steve Reich and Musicians, with Six Pianos and Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ. Remastered from the original four-track tapes for the first time, cut all-analogue at Emil Berliner Studios. Numbered …
The ECM Recording
The three albums Reich made for ECM between 1978 and 1982, reissued as facsimile sleeves in a card box: Music for 18 Musicians, the Octet / Music for a Large Ensemble / Violin Phase LP, and Tehillim. Cut all-analogue from the original tapes.
Issue 140 (Magazine + CD)
The new issue of Electronic Sound dives into the world of tape music – from Pierre Schaeffer and Delia Derbyshire to today's sharpest loopers – and comes bundled with an exclusive Steve Reich CD, Tape Pieces, pairing his mid-'60s phasing landmarks Co…
Four Organs / Phase Patterns (LP)
1974 re-press of the 1970 LP on Shandar with two seminal compositions for 4 organs (one plus maracas) from the same year, performed by Philip Glass and Jon Gibson among others, along with the composer. Essential minimalism.
Music For 18 Musicians (LP)
Rare mid-1980's re-issue on ECM New Series of one of the most beautiful and evocative Minimalist pieces ever, composed in 1976. Essential Minimalism.
Octet / Music For A Large Ensemble / Violin Phase (LP)
Mid-1980's re-issue on ECM New Series of the 1980 LP with two late 1970's beautiful classic Minimalist compositions for large and small ensamble, plus one for solo violin from 1967. Essential Minimalism.
Tehillim (LP)
Mid-1980's re-issue on ECM New Series of the 1982 LP with the 1981 composition developing from Minimalist origins into a new personal style. With insert.
The Desert Music (LP)
Original German edition of the 1985 LP on Nonesuch of the 1983 pulsing cantata for voices and orchestra.
Sextet / Six Marimbas (LP)
Original German edition of the 1987 LP on Nonesuch with two excellent phasing compositions for percussion (plus piano and synthesizer on one) from the mid 1980's.
Drumming (LP)
Original European edition of the 1987 LP on Elektra Nonesuch with a new recording of the classic Minimalist composition from 1971 inspired by Ghana's drumming and Indonesia's gamelan.
Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint (LP)
Rare original US edition of the 1989 LP on Elektra Nonesuch with the collaborations with the Kronos Quartet and guitarist Pat Metheny for two compositions for instruments and tape. With insert.
Den Danske Slagtøjsgruppe (LP)
Cage's 1941 piece for unusual percussion plus three other minimalist works for percussion from the 1970's and 80's, performed by The Danish Percussion Group and released by Point in 1985.
Eight Lectures on Experimental Music (Book)
In this brilliant collection, path-breaking figures of American experimental music discuss the meaning of their work at the turn of the twenty-first century. Presented between 1989 and 2002 at Wesleyan University, these captivating lectures provide r…
180 (LP)
Great 1983 LP by Szemző's ensemble with highly-acclaimed (especially by Steve Reich) performances of two American classic minimalist compositions as well as two by Hungarian minimalists, released by Hungaroton.
Group 180 II (LP)
Excellent second LP by Szemző's ensemble with highly-acclaimed (especially by Steve Reich) performances of one American classic minimalist composition as well as two by Hungarian minimalists, released by Hungaroton in 1986.
Reich/Richter
On Reich/Richter, Steve Reich joins Ensemble Intercontemporain and conductor George Jackson for a single 37‑minute arc of pulsed colour, a chamber‑orchestral score conceived in dialogue with Gerhard Richter’s moving stripes, where pattern, blur, and …
Runner - Music For Ensemble And Orchestra
On Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, Steve Reich joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki for two late-period works that stretch his pulsed minimalism onto a large orchestral canvas, maintaining propulsive clarity whil…
Xenakis-Reich (Live)
Trio Xenakis – comprising percussionists Adélaïde Ferrière, Emmanuel Jacquet, and Rodolphe Théry – presents Xenakis-Reich (Live) on B Records, a rigorous examination of two foundational approaches to contemporary percussion composition. This vinyl ed…