John Adams: Shaker Loops: Light Over Water

John Adams (Artist, Performer), Gary Lowendusky (Performer), Jennifer Culp (Performer), Judiyaba (Performer), John [Composer] Adams (Composer), Ridge String Quartet (Performer), Brian McCarty (Performer), William Kingelhofer (Performer), William Klingelhoffer (Performer), Don Kenelly (Performer), Mack Kenley (Performer), Jim Miller (Performer), Timothy Wilson (Performer), Zacharia Spellman (Performer), Ah Ling Neu (Performer), Ahling Neu (Performer), Dan Smiley (Performer), Krista Bennion (Performer), Krista Bennion Feeney (Performer), Robert Rinehart (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: John Adams, Gary Lowendusky, Jennifer Culp, Judiyaba, Ridge String Quartet, et al.
• Composer: John [Composer] Adams
• Audio CD (November 18, 2009)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: New Albion Records
• ASIN: B000000R2C
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,524 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #57 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Electronic > Computer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Permanently altered state of musical awareness, October 26, 2005

By 

Thomas M. Brod, MD (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Adams: Shaker Loops: Light Over Water (Audio CD)

When New Albion records brought out the LP Light Over Water by John Adams in 1983, I was flipped into a new sonic world. "Flipped"? Well, it is transcendant music, and I experienced a new emergent state of mind from which I still get a contact high (and there was no external substance involved!).

What's especially interesting about this early piece (Adams has called it, "My forgotten [master]piece") is that it beautifully establishes John Adams' unique musical vocabulary/sytax/style that can be discerned in nearly all of his subsequent work--all the way through the recent (2003/5) 2nd violin concerto, entitled Dharma At Big Sur.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Major Minimalism, January 17, 2001

By 

Daniel G. Berk (West Bloomfield, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Adams: Shaker Loops: Light Over Water (Audio CD)

These are two more fine works by minimalist composer John Adams. If one appreciates Adams' style of composition, this CD is well worth acquiring.

10 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "...a decade late yet right on time, dollar-wise.", January 31, 2001

By 

DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Adams: Shaker Loops: Light Over Water (Audio CD)

John Adams calculatingly stepped into the role formerly held by Aaron Copland &, perhaps, Leonard Bernstein: Unofficial official American Composer. The job of this composer is to channel durable avant garde ideas into compositions suitable for a Kennedy Center performance. John Adams is a fine composer. The only hitch is that the so-called minimalist techniques of Steve Reich & Philip Glass had already achieved popular currency, while more "difficult" composers such as Terry Riley, Lamont Young & Pauline Oliveros had found smaller but equally enthusiastic audiences. Also, the minimalist "sound" had crossed over into pop music by the early Seventies, influencing both disco & new wave.

Glass moved into experimental opera. Reich returned to his spiritual concerns. & strong political viewpoints. So here comes a two-fer of "Shaker Loops" (1977/revised 1983) & "Light Over Water," the latter by 1983 a decade late yet right on time, dollar-wise. The road lay open for the grand Verdian/PBS hoopla of "Nixon in China."

"Light Over Water" is a charming & listen-able extended composition by John Adams, reassuringly subtitled "symphony for brass instruments and synthesizers." It's nice that one doesn't need to flip a record halfway through. "Shaker Loops" is a better work, albeit as contrived an "Americana" creation as an Andrew Wyeth painting, & lots more fun performed by a larger ensemble, anyway.

But what's the point? Early electronic masterworks by Pauline Oliveros & Morton Subotnick that delight the ear & mind are back in print. Reich, Glass, Young & Riley are well represented in the catalogue. You can still purchase the Talking Heads' "Remain in Light," produced in the minimalist style by Brian Eno. Anyone for Kraftwerk? Laurie Anderson? Sonic Youth? Balinese shadow puppet music? Surf guitars? Rev up yer media player & explore. You can thank me later.

Bob Rixon