Terry Riley

After years of composing for piano and electronic media and more jazz-based ensembles, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet convinced Terry Riley to try his hand at a work for the recently formed ensemble (DH is the 1st violinist). This marked the beginning of an astonishing series of works for string quartet, that far exceed anything produced for the medium by either Steve Reich or Philip Glass (who've both composed works for Kronos). This LP shows the earliest of Riley's music for Kronos. "G Song" is arranged from music Riley wrote for the film "Lifespan." Les Yeux Fermes and LifespanThe other three works were composed specifically for string quartet, and "Cadenza on the Night Plain" makes use of just intonation tuning. In essence, Riley really busted Kronos's chops, making them re-think the tuning of their instruments, and the amazing, spirtually and emotionally rich result transcends the notion of "minimalism" into a style uniquely Riley's own.