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Terry Riley

Country: United States

Born in Colfax, California, Riley studied at Shasta College, San Francisco State University. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center working with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath (1918-1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

In C - 60th Birthday Full Moon Celebration At Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Big tip! Sixty years after the groundbreaking premiere of In C forever changed the course of contemporary music, Terry Riley celebrates the work's enduring legacy with a historic live recording captured at Kyoto's Unesco World Heritage site, Kiyomizu-dera Temple. One of the most influential composers of our time, Terry Riley has continually redefined the possibilities of music through a career marked by innovation and originality. Described by Riley himself as his signature composition, In C (19…
In C (LP)
Late 1970's re-press on CBS of one of the most beautiful, ground-breaking, original, psychedelic, influential, riveting, etc. experimental music album ever made, originally released in 1968. Essential unsurpassed masterpiece.
A Rainbow In Curved Air (LP)
1980's re-press on CBS Masterworks of possibly the most beautiful, ground-breaking, original, psychedelic, influential, riveting, etc. experimental music album ever made, originally released in 1969. Essential unsurpassed masterpiece. Carrollton Pressing.
Persian Surgery Dervishes (2LP)
Original edition on Shandar of the Minimalist/repetitive tour-de-force for electric organ & feedback released as a double LP set in 1972, some of the most original and genuinely psychedelic avant-garde music ever. Essential masterpiece.
Lifespan (LP)
1978 re-issue on Stip of the superlative haunting and atmospheric soundtrack to the 1975 film Le Secret de la Vie. One of the most beautiful and enjoyable Minimalism-related albums.
Shri Camel (LP)
Rare original US edition of the 1980 album with the beautiful 1978 improvisation for electronic organ and computerized digital delay. Pitman Pressing.
No Man's Land (LP)
1985 LP on Planisphare with the beautiful Indian-tinged soundtrack blending synthesizer, piano and vocals with sitar and tabla.
Cadenza On The Night Plain And Other String Quartets (2LP)
2LP set released by Gramavision in 1985 with the string quartets in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet moving beyond the Minimalism of the early period. Includes catalogue.
Church Of Anthrax (LP)
Original UK edition on CBS of the very unique 1971 collaboration bridging Minimalism and experiemntal rock in a very unusual way.
4 Pianos (book)
Beautiful catalogue for an event of Minimalist piano performances by the four masters, held in Rome in 1999.
Pieces For Broken Piano
Pieces for Broken Piano turns a weather‑wrecked 1916 Gebrüder Stingl grand into an accidental “prepared” instrument, as Miroslav Beinhauer navigates new works by Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Milan Knížák, Gordon Monahan, Elliott Sharp, Milan Gustar and Yoon‑Ji Lee written specifically for its fractured voice.
Live in Paris, 1975 by France Musique FM
Experience the extraordinary sonic journey of Terry Riley like never before with Live In Paris, 1975, an exclusive release from France Musique FM. Captured in these rare French live recordings, Riley delivers a mesmerizing display of his signature psychedelic organ mastery, following closely on the heels of his 1972 landmark work, Persian Surgery Dervishes. In stunning form, Riley conjures endlessly rippling, dosed organ drones that create a captivating sense of stasis within expansion—a uniquel…
A Rainbow In Curved Air
• Limited edition of 750 numbered copies on yellow vinyl. 180 gram audiophile vinyl •  In the pantheon of American experimental music, few works possess the historical gravitas and enduring influence of Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, released in 1969 on CBS Records' short-lived "Music of Our Time" series. This album represents nothing less than a seismic shift in the trajectory of Western art music, establishing compositional and technological precedents that would reverberate through fi…
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In C
* Limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on gold vinyl. Includes insert * In the history of Western art music, few compositions have achieved the paradoxical feat of radical simplicity coupled with profound transformative power. Terry Riley's In C, composed in 1964, stands as the most deceptively modest yet revolutionary work of the twentieth century, a single page of musical notation that fundamentally altered the trajectory of American composition and established the foundation of…
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The Columbia Recordings
A deluxe 4-CD box set bringing together the seminal Columbia recordings of Terry Riley. A landmark reissue from one of the most pivotal figures in 20th-century music. The Columbia Recordings brings together the four seminal albums that Terry Riley created for Columbia Masterworks between 1968 and 1980—a body of work that redefined the possibilities of minimalism, electronic music, and compositional freedom. The deluxe 4CD box set includes In C (1968), A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), Church of An…
Persian Surgery Dervishes
One of our favorite transcendental minimalist records ever offered here in its first 1974 Shanti gatefold edition in excellent condition.
4 Pianoforti
Great catalogue of this 1999 event of legendary minimal piano performances in Rome.
Shri Camel
Terry Riley’s Shri Camel is a meditative masterwork blending the feeling of eastern music with repetitive electronic patterns, obtained using a modified Yamaha YC-45D combo organ tuned in just intonation and augmented with digital delay. In C and Rainbow in Curved Air get all the ink (inc?), but its own somewhat subtle way, 1980’s Shri Camel, the last of the three brilliant albums Terry Riley recorded for CBS, is every bit as groundbreaking as its hallowed predecessors. Not content to rest on hi…
Connections (1970-1974)
Formed in Cambridge in 1969 by Tim Souster and Roger Smalley, Intermodulation started out as a 4 piece group with the addition of Robin Thompson and Andrew Powell (who soon moved on to other Cambridge projects, including a pre Chris Cutler Henry Cow). Powell was replaced by Peter Britton, and this incarnation of the group remained for the duration of their existence.  Having releasing a box set of works by Gentle Fire it felt necessary to do the same with Intermodulation and thus complete the ot…
In Between The Notes: A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath Master India Musician
Very rare first publication of VHS cassette of 1986 documentary on Pandit Pran Nath, featuring Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.
An Anthology
Essential and visually stunning 1963 anthology edited by Young and Maciunas featuring most of the artist who would be take part in Fluxus. Very rare second edition published in 1970 of this important book.
The Book Of Abbeyozzud
If you think of Terry Riley as the composer who restored simple pleasures to contemporary music with works like In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air, you might be perplexed by the angularity and chromaticism of these recent pieces. It’s hard to follow where he’s going when he wanders so freely over the harmonic and stylistic map. Composed over the last six years, each of these 28 pieces has a title that starts with a different letter of the Spanish alphabet, and Riley evokes Spanish guitar music wit…
Descending Moonshine Dervishes
** Limited edition 2024 repress ** Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes, originally released in 1982. Recorded live in Berlin in 1975, and largely improvised, Riley plays a modified Yamaha organ with variable resistors to facilitate tuning in just intonation. This is a 50+ minute recording divided into two halves for vinyl. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be impr…
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7x7
Tricatel is proud to present, in a limited edition of 777 hand-numbered copies, the superb double vinyl/book dedicated to 7×7, inspired by Bertrand Burgalat.
Köln – February 23, 1975
The meeting between Terry Riley the father of American Minimalism and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry. Two contemporary luminaries who always shared an ear for non Western music and philosophies. Joined here by Stein Claeson on violin and el. bass, and Bengt Berger on percussion, these two giants give us an example of deep organic music based on the full integration of various materials. A beautiful example of true extended sonic democracy.
The Light is Real
Tip! Other Minds is pleased to present The Light is Real, featuring the trio of Thollem (voice and wavestate synthesizer), Terry Riley (voice), and Nels Cline (electric guitars, effects, and megamouth). This recording is the sixth iteration of the Thollem/Cline trio, with previous installments including performances by William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, and Michael Wimberly. The origins of this recording go back to an epiphany Thollem experienced in Northern New Mexico during the Covid-19 pandemi…
John Tilbury plays Terry Riley
Keyboard Studies presents pivotal works by Terry Riley as interpreted by John Tilbury. The performances offer a rare depth of touch and imagination, embracing the cyclical, improvisatory frameworks that define Riley’s minimalism and bringing to the fore Tilbury’s keen sensibility for architectural listening, color, and meticulous pacing.
Organum for Stefano
In Terry Riley's words "I was invited to an art gallery in Los Angeles to hear a solo String Bass recital by Stefano. I arrived late and the concert was in progress, I was walking down a series of concrete halls to reach the galley chamber where the music was taking place. In the distance I could hear the sounds of french horns, trombones, strings and brass all mixing in a beautiful modal ensemble, and at the time I thought that Stefano must be playing his bass with a chamber group. I was amazed…
In Between The Notes : A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath
William Farley’s 1986 documentary portrait of the Indian classical figure, who considered by many to be the godfather of drone. Featuring interviews with Terry Riley, Mariam Zazeela and La Monte Young.
Terry Riley's in C (Book)
Unquestionably the founding work of minimalism in musical composition, Terry Riley's In C (1964) challenges the standards of imagination, intellect, and musical ingenuity to which "classical" music is held. Only one page of score in length, it contains neither specified instrumentation nor parts. Its fifty-three motives are compact, presented without any counterpoint or evident form. The composer gave only spare instructions and no tempo. And he assigned the work a title that's laconic in the ex…
Assassin Reverie
2005 release ** Arte Quartett: Beat Hofstetter, soprano saxophone; Sascha Armbruster, alto saxophone; Andrea Formenti, tenor saxophone; Beat Kappeler, baritone saxophone Terry Riley, vocals, piano and harpsichord (Uncle Jard) A free spirit, maverick par excellence, creator of a personal compositional style that has spawned entire generations of epigones, Terry Riley (b 1935) embodies the best aspects of the American pioneer spirit, the positive and uncorrupted image of America (and California in…
A Rainbow in Curved Air - Tierkreis - Zodiac
An unexpected musical combination of two masterpieces of modern music rethought through the use of contemporary electronic instruments that marvels at lively and innovative sounds, in the version with keyboards and electronics presented at Terraforma Festival 2019.
Reed Streams
Long awaited reissue for Terry Riley's 1966 debut album, and one of the greatest pieces of minimal music ever created on Philip Ornstein’s iconic MassArt imprint, which also brought us Max Neuhaus & John Cage’s Fontana Mix-Feed and Allan Kaprow’s How to Make a Happening, is among the most sought after in Terry Riley vast discography. It is also the first recordings Riley made using his two personal Revox reel-to-reel tape machines (or "Time Lag Accumulators") later heard on his groundbreaking re…
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Again & Again
This is the third and final chapter of a project/research on "minimalisms" that the Italian flutist Manuel Zurria, acclaimed instrumentalist and passionate lover of the more adventurous contemporary music, began in 2007. The double CD include near two and a half hours of music, which reveal how much different the approaches to the beloved "minimalist" verb can be. And how much an inquiring and participatory interpretation can lead to exciting results. In this brilliant collection Zurria not only…
Terry Riley and Don Cherry Duo
Another incredible treasure from the vaults of Cologne radio, recorded in late February 1975. In this duo improvisation Terry Riley's organ intersections just define the geometry of the hyper-dimensional space where Don Cherry's outwordly trumpet lives. Mantric and evocative, we could go on and on listening to the very same track all day long, it could last forever...In 1975, pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley and jazz trumpet cosmonaut Don Cherry joined forces for a magnetic performance…
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The Lion's Throne
The Lion’s Throne bears witness to the performances that the legendary composer Terry Riley and Italian singer Amelia Cuni did together in the United Kingdom and Italy between 1999 and 2006. Riley, whose remarkable body of work seamlessly integrates a lifetime of devotion to Indian classical music into the western classical tradition, collaborates with Cuni, a singer trained in Dhrupad who, like Riley, experiments with Indian singing in a variety of ways.In these recordings, Riley plays piano or…
Live At La Salle Wagram Paris 1975
Terry Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes is a long-form piece from a concert in Paris (on November 19) 10 days later the legendary performance held at the Metamusik Festival in Berlin. Essential for all fans of 20th Century Minimalism and electronics. Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes renders the West Coast minimalist deity in pursuit of a flighty solo spirit via modified Yamaha organ fitted with variable resistors to enable his favoured just intonation tuning - a method allowing him to…
In C Mali
2015 release. Terry Riley's In C Mali by Africa Express is the first ever recording of Riley’s minimalist work by an African ensemble. In C Mali was originally written by Terry Riley in 1964. Upon hearing this new version the composer said that he was “overwhelmed and delighted”. The piece is conducted by Anton De Ridder who has lent his expertise to Max Richter, Jonny Greenwood and These New Puritans to name but a few.
Music For The Gift
**Astonishing unreleased archival Terry Riley material finally available on LP, a true and rare slice of history released on wax**By the early 1960s pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley had just completed a MA in composition from UC Berkeley, begun working at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, along with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros, among others, and had started to compose prolifically. Though his first “proper” album would not be released for several years, in 19…
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Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets
Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets, originally released in 1983. Recorded live in Munich in 1982 using two Prophet synthesizers and voice, this album is a reflection of Riley's ongoing interest in melding improvisation, electronic music, and the raga vocal stylings of his mentor, Pandit Pran Nath. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be improvised upon…
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