UNKNOWN 225
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Terry Riley
Magazine Review Date: 4/1988
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: MCCEL1819
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Harp of New Albion |
Terry Riley, Composer
Terry Riley, Composer Terry Riley, Piano |
Composer or Director: Terry Riley
Magazine Review Date: 4/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: CDCEL1819
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Harp of New Albion |
Terry Riley, Composer
Terry Riley, Piano Terry Riley, Composer |
Author:
The catch is that beauty here is the beauty Riley (following LaMonte Young) has discovered in an unorthodox method of tuning, which some may feel not even the Bosendorfer Imperial used here deserves to have inflicted on it. My own reaction is that there is an occasional sensation of ideas married to the tuning in acutely sensitive ways, of strange musical attractions and repulsions being created, but that that sensation is too occasional for complete trust in Riley's music to take over.
The string-muting of ''The Orchestra of Tao'' introduces a new sound-world at the beginning of Side 2, a rare 'in-tune' cadence makes a bridge between the last two pieces, ''Circle of Wolves'' and ''Land's End''; the revolving patterns of ''Riding the Westerleys'' also gain fascinating colours—a kind of stained-Glass, you might say. These are effective and well-timed strategies, but are they sufficient to carry the listener over the lengthy tracts of doodling arpeggios as he waits for the next idea to materialize? (These are improvised pieces, but with ''structural or composed elements which determine the overall shape the section will take''.) After all, Satie, the godfather of this kind of music, rarely went on for more than three minutes at a time, unless he was being deliberately vexatious, Riley's pieces are generally several times that length. Ultimately I do feel that the titles of this music are rather more promising than the music is fulfilling. (New Albion was Sir Francis Drake's name for what is now San Francisco Bay, the Harp was supposedly brought by a crew-member of the Golden Hind and recognized as sacred by the inhabitants.)'
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