Steve Reich has, for the last five decades or so, been at the forefront of repetitive music.

The composer has never aped an overt rock attitude, nor really moved past the most simply comprised ensembles, frequently using a number of players plying the same instrument. But most of his work tends to voicing these instruments in interesting manners while working to expose the importance of time in his compositions.

To the most passive listeners, each of Reich’s works might wind up sounding like not enough of something and by the end of a sequence, too much of everything. But it’s the composer’s ability to hear, in his mind and then get it down onto paper, the way notes and tones interact with each other.

Four Organs - Phase Patterns is an album comprised of just the title’s two works.

This first offering makes use of a single chord, broken down into four separate notes and played by as many organists – one of which is Phillip Glass (not that he’s granted space to insert his own musical identify). By beginning with one note, having the next added in by another organist and so on results in something very plain, but at the same time extraordinarily rich.

As the composition continues, each note is given a longer time to resonate, which eventually leads to a never ending drone of tones exhibiting Reich’s unique sense of harmony. Supported by insistent maracas, the song builds its own tension through those single, droned on notes. The compositions conclusion is as abrupt as its beginning, but still seems to have fulfilled its purpose.

The second work included here is an extension of “Four Organs,” while not utilizing the exact same setting. Instead Reich eschew the slow build and purposeful exposition of the first offering and begins with a quickly paced set of notes that function in roughly the same way as the chords built earlier on during the recording. “Phase Patters” is still concerned with space and how repeated notes with slightly different durations work with or against each other.

While the first track here doesn’t wind up sounding hectic at all, by the end of “Phase Patterns,” listeners might be overwhelmed by how much seems to be going on. If that was the point, Reich succeeded. But what he wanted to do – probably – was to hear how the combination of complimentary notes sounded given a difficult setting.