POX: Steve Reich

"Octet / Music For A Large Ensemble / Violin Phase" on ECM is up there with M418M for me.

another vote for Drumming

yeah Drumming is 'the one' for me also

Besides MF18M, the albums I return to are Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (the latter is the one that the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" samples) and Double Sextet/2x5.

‘eight lines’ is gorgeous

Some of his pieces have a musical documentary feel about them, most of these feature a clever device in which he transcribes short clips of speech into notes to be tracked alongside with an instrument, cello, or violin usually.

You realise how much music is embedded in our everyday speech patterns, Different Trains and the startling WTC 9/11 are great examples of that method.

I would like to recommend Tehillim, I feel it's where you can hear his 'human' touch the most; it's also available as the full ECM Recordings boxset with Mf18M, Octet, Violin Phase & MfLE.

Oh Tehillim is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, it can drive me to tears. But I think Map was looking for the more long-form trancelike world of Reich.

Anyhoo, Steve Reich is the guest of honor at this year’s Long Play Festival in Brooklyn, put on by the Bang on a Can organization. Among other works, including M418M, the Mivos Quartet will do his complete works for string quartet, including Different Trains.

Oh and Drumming will be performs too. I’ve never seen that one performed live. (I saw a local new music group in DC perform M418M several years ago).

A great in-depth interview with @SteveReich in @FT @FinancialTimes today, in which the composer talks about his early life, obsession with Stravinsky, and recent inspirations.
Read here: https://t.co/GX2l9XcYTO pic.twitter.com/4zD8Gjc1qg

— Steve Reich (@SteveReich) February 2, 2024

"There is brunch-friendly soft rock music being piped in, and on the pre­vi­ous even­ing the mall hos­ted a live per­form­ance by an Eagles cover band. But Reich, dressed in dark tones and wear­ing his sig­na­ture dark base­ball cap, has come for the waffles, not the music."

It would be funny if he refused to talk about anything but waffles

Glad the article clarified that point, would have definitely expected him to be the type of guy who goes out to breakfast for the soft rock soundtrack and the lore of yesterday’s Eagles cover band

“What do I want? I want life, I want the music to be played, I want the music to be listened to. I want to know people have felt things,” he says. “I’m very grateful that my music has been listened to and appreciated. It’s a great source of happiness.”

Damn I guess success does bring happiness, get stuffed 'making art should be its own reward' people.