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Impressively combining creative fearlessness.
—Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine
This album features iconic percussion works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich, whom The Village Voice deemed, "America’s greatest living composer.” Reich’s music has influenced artists ranging from art-pop and rock musicians Brian Eno and David Bowie to composers John Adams and Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe.
While most composers now welcome our instruments on the concert stage, only a few have shown audiences how percussion can be absolutely essential. The rhythmic drive, articulated melody, and perpetual cycle of Reich’s music seems to have marimbas and vibraphones in its very DNA, just as John Cage’s music feels unimaginable without drums, tin cans, and an endless variety of noise makers.
Works featured on the album include Mallet Quartet, Sextet, Nagoya Marimbas, and Music for Pieces of Wood.
Click here to listen to the WNYC New Sounds episode featuring the album.
Sensational! Sometimes people ask if my music allows interpretation. I can’t think of a better answer than to play them your album.— Steve Reich —
This is a record so translucent and playful that the phrases seem to leap out of your headphones, and individual blocks of wood melt into a blissful flow.— Zoë Madonna, The Boston Globe —
This is the greatest percussion disc I have ever heard, both in terms of playing and recording.— Graham Rickson, theartsdesk.com —