[This guest post was written by wbwolf about number 95 on The List; the album was also submitted by wbwolf.]
Minimalism was a movement started in the 1960s, using short, repetitive musical phrases to overlap and building on themselves. It also built on the musique concrete movement of the 1950s, incorporating tape loops and synthesizers into pieces. Both of these would become key to how the synthesizer developed as an instrument and use of sampling in music.
Steve Reich grew up in a divided but musical family, studying classical and romantic music from early age. In this teens, he became interested in Baroque and jazz, and in college, he studied with a number of contemporary composers. In the early 1960s, he joined the San Francisco Tape Music Center, where he collaborated with Terry Riley, whose “In C” is considered one of the first minimalist music pieces.
Live / Electric Music consists of two side-long pieces. Side A is “Violin Phase”, composed in 1967. As described on the jacket, the piece as two phases. First, the violinist Paul Zukolsky recorded three sets of ten note, twelve beat phases. Then for the second phase, Zukolsky plays a long as the loops play on three different channels, gradually slowing and speeding up to be in and out of phase. The result is, while the melody is simple, it becomes hypnotic as it’s hard to tell where one begins and another ends.
Side B is the first important Reich piece composed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, “It’s Gonna Rain”. The basis is a recording of a Black Pentecostal street preacher, Brother Walter. The piece is divided into two parts, each using a different technique. The first part is built on a story of Noah, focusing on the phrase “It’s Gonna Rain”. The tape loops in this section break down words, phrases and sounds to form to a beat that to the contemporary ears sounds very much like the way a DJ will break down a sample while scratching. The second part is further along the Noah story, but here the phrase is cutup, looped, and then layered. Eventually, as more and more layers are added, as the loops move in and out of phase, until it becomes just a smear of sound.
Fascinating listening to see how short phrases can become complex with layering and juxtaposition.
[Alt text for accompanying image: The album artwork is a watercolour and ink drawing of a white and black shoe merged with a violin. The shoe/violin is standing on its toe in green grass, with a blue sky in the background and abstract rain falling. There is a white border around the drawing, with the song titles in small black font along the top, then the artist and album name in larger font directly underneath, above the drawing.]
https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/03/22/steve-reich-live-electric-music-1968-us/
#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #experimental #minimalism #minimalist #MinimalistMusic #PaulZukolsky #SteveReich #tapeLoops #violin
