Available
Hall, Erik
Music For 18 Musicians (steve Reich)
A re-interpretation so often comes from an impulse, even if subliminal, of one-upmanship - let me do better, wait 'til
you hear it my way. Sometimes though, and it happens too rarely, the cover is an act of devotion in which a musician's
humility produces something more beautiful than bravura could. When Erik Hall undertook his painstaking reconstruction
of Steve Reich's 1976 masterpiece of minimalism, 'Music For 18 Musicians', it was as much an exercise in modesty as
ambition. With its repetitions and complex constructions, the piece makes great demands on stamina and concentration,
and Reich himself advised that these challenges meant it should probably be performed with more than eighteen musicians.
Hall, however, recorded every part himself in his small home studio, playing instruments he had on hand, in live, single
takes. Here, then is the ambition. But here too is the modesty: by doing one section a day, one instrument at a time, he
made his way through this monumental piece, building a faithful and loving re-creation, one sonic brick at a time.
Xylophone becomes muted piano, violin becomes electric guitar and so it is that music for eighteen becomes music for
one.
Price
€ 28.95
Genre
Format
LP - 1 disk
Release
03-07-2020
Label
Item-nr
492124
EAN
0843563126738
Availability
Not in stock