Terry Riley Gets Simple

Oh minimalism! What an odd and dense history you have. Everything from early 20^th century composers to some weirdo art movements have been sighted as influences on what became known as minimalism. Of course, to most folks, in terms of music, the genre name doesn’t mean all that much – and it shouldn’t. It’s an esoteric music without a single melodic line that might be rendered in whistled tones. So why does anyone care at this point?

Minimalism can’t readily be referred to as an American thing, although, some of the bigger names in composition were schooled here. And in fact, both LaMonte Young and Terry Riley attended music school together on the west coast. The former would go on to presage the Velvet Underground with long, drawn out electronic drones and even counted John Cale in his employ for a bit of time. As for Riley, he’s led a more low key life even as he’s become as touted, if not more so than Young. Regardless of either man’s personal living situation, both conceived music that would go on to inform rock groups in one way or another.

Subsequent to finishing school, Riley embarked on a series of performances in and around the Bay Area – a place that he’s always called home having grown up on the outskirts of its sphere of influence in Colfax, Ca. His performances during the very early ‘60s would begin during the late evening and by dint of his elongated drones and repetitive keyboard figures would last into the following morning. It was an approach to performance and entertaining gatherings of people that would eventually be mirrored with the Acid Tests a few years later as the Grateful Dead, working with rock and blues tropes, performed for crowds for hours.

Beyond just his performance style, Riley came to influence a number of rock related groups. More recently, a Japanese band called Acid Mothers Temple recorded a rendition of Riley’s “In C,” which was not only his first major piece, but an important composition as it worked to define not only Riley’s style, but minimalism in a broader sense.

After stultifying fans (bookworms/geeks) with “In C,” Riley went on to release A Rainbow in Curved Air. Not too distant from his earlier work, Riley continued the approach to composing by layering innumerable, simple figures atop of each other to arrive at some dervish of single notes. There are certainly progressions that are followed as evidenced by his keyboard lines throughout the title track. But what makes the music more of a mystical thing is the supplemental percussion that crops up along the way.

Both tracks on A Rainbow in Curved Air – the other being “Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band” – benefit from Riley’s reliance on his own keys. But that second track moves a bit closer to Young’s work with each intertwined saxophone line.

It’s hard to experience the full effect of any Riley piece from a recording, but considering that everyone isn’t able to witness the 75 year old perform live at this point, his disc’s are going to have to suffice.