Customer Reviews

Terry Riley: A Rainbow In Curved Air

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another one of those records that come out very rarely and change the face of music. It has been said by my fellow reviewers that this record basically started the trance/new wave/techno scene. This record also premiered the "Time-lag accumulator", two Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders wired together in such a way as to create a continuous loop of sound. This was the machine that Fripp and Eno used on their groundbreaking "(No Pussyfooting)" album.

Listening to the record's first track is like watching water boil, or a hive of bees. It is both constantly changing while also being completely static. The structure is impeccable, reminding one of the fugues of Bach at times. And the keyboard sounds that Riley chooses are some of the most interesting that I've ever heard, especially the "Rockschichord" that comes in at around 10:00.

The first track presents the sunny, happy side of Looping; in the second we hear a more disturbing presentation. You first hear the ominous sound of Riley's looped saxophone creep out of the speakers, but that is gradually overtaken by a dark organ drone. Throughout the next twenty minutes the saxophone fades in and out, but the drone remains constant. And at the end, when your head is completely lost in the music, the drone stops - and the silence that ends the CD is more shocking than the loudest discord.

I recommend this CD to anyone who is in on the current techno-trance scene, so they can hear where the movement began.

That subject pretty much says it all. This pair of pieces sees Terry Riley during the initial period of his experiments with tape delays and electronic organs, where he began to create long, flowing improvisational tapestries of repeating periodic forms. If you're familiar with Indian music, particular Karnatic music, you'll find this especially fascinating, as there's a definite parentage from the Indian subcontinent to this style. The title work is a gentle, melodic, flowing piece which swirls around and around, sort of like some candy-colored psychedelic dervish dance. But the other piece, "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band", is a dark and delicious work, with Riley adding his superb sax (very shenai-influenced, it should be noted) playing to the mix along with tense organ drones and shocking, abrupt shifts of tone. A great work to play for those who dismiss minimalism as bland repetitive background music! This is a truly important release, and also an excellent introduction to this important period in Terry Riley's output.

I found my first exposure to the music of American minimalist composer Terry Riley (and minimalism as a genre), to be extremely rewarding. As a fan of 1970s progressive rock and electronica, I am a little surprised that I did not explore the genre sooner, given that there is so much overlap between audiences of progressive and minimalism...well, at least there was overlap back when both styles formed part of a "popular avant-garde". At any rate, this 1969 album is excellent and sounds (to my ears) as exciting and innovative now as I am certain it did upon its release.

Terry Riley plays quite an assortment of instruments on this album including electric organ, RMI electric harpsichord, rocksichord, dumbec (finger drum), and tambourine. The electric organ however, which is heavily treated at times, dominates the soundscape. There is also heavily electronically altered soprano saxophone in the mix too. Quite honestly, this is some of the strangest and most eerie saxophone playing I have ever heard - very long sustained tones, with only incremental changes.

The music on this album is characterized by a series of what musicologists refer to as "ostinato networks". These networks are comprised of layers of interlocking and repeated melodic patterns that gradually unfold over long periods of time (A Rainbow in Curved Air = 18'39"; Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band = 21'38") with only very subtle changes over the course of each piece. There is however, a subtle rhythmic element, which is nicely demonstrated on the first piece. Evidently, this is a tendency borrowed from American jazz styles.

In large part however, the music on this album is deeply meditative, and at times borders on the hypnotic. The droning organ does a great job of achieving this and reflects a structural aspect borrowed from eastern music, particularly Indian classical music. One interesting fact that I read during my fact-finding session on minimalism was that the sheer length of each piece and the meditative quality of the music deliberately tried to reproduce the sense of timelessness induced during an acid trip. The second piece is a good example of this and seemed to at least partially suspend time - I got very caught up in the meditative aspects of the music and (for once) was not aware of time.

This is fantastic stuff and I am well on my way to exploring other works by Terry Riley including his masterwork "In C", in addition to other minimalist composers such as Steve Reich, LaMonte Young, and Philip Glass. Very highly recommended to my fellow proggers.

It was winter, 1969, Great Barrington, Vt. I was visiting my girlfriend. I arrived the night before, from Connecticut, exhausted, jealous, foolish... in the morning, she left in the shadows for the shower. I sat of the edge of the bed and turned on her record player. It cycled and the arm dropped down on Rainbow in Curved Air. I opened the curtains with a yank and the sky was FULL of falling white snow. The music began. In two weeks our affair would be over, but the music of that moment will always be with me. Perhaps the most perfect moment of my life. Chris Browne END

Originally released in 1967, looks to be Riley's very first record. This is my first exposure to the minimalist. I've heard his name mentioned several times before from fellow krautrock, progressive and experimental patrons. Was this electronic musician guru ahead of his time or what? Riley had managed to practically invent the 'minimalist' genre. Liked what I heard here, I need to seek out other titles from Mr. Riley. Really got sort of soaked right into the highly improvised title cut - "A Rainbow In Curved Air" (18:39) and the rather intriguing (make that out-standing) "Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band" (21:38). The man makes such brilliant use of his keyboards, organ and synthesizers in this work. Unlike any other CD I've heard before. Should do plenty for fans of Tangerine Dream, Steve Reich, Escapade and possibly Fifty Foot Hose. Highly recommended.

The point of view of a listener of classical music:

Riley at his most typically "minimalist". With his seminal "In C" (Terry Riley: In C), Terry Riley was veritably, in 1964, the inventor of "minimalism" in music, or rather what I prefer to call "repetitive music", to distinguish it from this other kind of minimalism exemplified by Morton Feldman or, in Europe, Scelsi, Sciarrino or Lachenmann. The latter is in many ways more "minimalist", being usually slow moving and based on truly minimal musical events, long-held single notes, at the threshold of silence. On the other hand "repetitive music", while also based on basic and minimal cells doggedly repeated, can be, and usually is, very busy, thanks to the piling and tiling of those cells and "their rhythmic out-of-syncing". Though he invented it, Riley wasn't the main exponent of that kind of minimalism; he let that to Reich, Glass and Adams in the US, and a flock of composers in Europe, Nyman, Tavener, Pärt, Gorecki, Andriessen, Ten Holt etcetera. Riley moved on to other stuff, night-long keyboard improvisations in the wake of his teacher and mentor LaMonte Young (of which an example is given by The Harp of New Albion, The Harp of New Albion), North-Indian Raga under the tutelage of Pandit Pran Nath. Riley's fascination both for North-Indian art music and North-American Indian folk music has informed the beautiful string quartets he wrote in the 1980s for the Kronos Quartet.

Here, in 1969 (the disc's release year; in fact the compositions date from 1967 - Poppy Nogood - and 1968 - Rainbow), five years after "In C", it is still repetitive music, and a style closer to new age and progressive rock than to classical music. Well, young people (o would you handme my cane so I can get up outa my rocking chair?), I had my days of progressive rock in the late 1970s and early 1980s, plenty of Robert Wyatt and Soft Machine, Yes, Genesis, The Lounge Lizards, Brian Eno, yep, remember all these guys. The arrival of disco and punk ended it all for me, but this here arouses nice memories from a distant past. "A Rainbow in Curved Air", mostly for keyboards, sounds like a wild and exuberant keyboard improvisation (which it probably is); Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, for soprano saxophe and electric organ, is more brooding and ominous, and very atmospheric. It reminds me of the music of a French saxophone ensemble, Urban Sax (still have the LP somewhere, though the turntable is long broken; man, I see that they are still around! How hold might THEY be?). All this is fun, entertaining, fairly inconspicuous, and "Rainbow" still today will make good background music for your cocktail party.

My favorite in Riley's output remains the string quartets he wrote for and with the Kronos Quartet in the 1980s: Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances.

TT is LP length : 40:30. I have an early European CD release from when CBS was not even yet Sony, which came with hardly any liner notes, just a utopian blurb which I assume was written by Riley ("And then all wars ended... The concept of work was forgotten.." Sweet dreams, Terry), which I suppose reproduced the original LP as it was.

When you say Terry Riley most people say "who?".Terry Riley made people think about the sythizier and tape loops,without him where would Baba O' Riley be,what about Eno,Soft Machine,even Pink Floyd and Funeral For a Friend by Elton. They sure wouldn't have have the synth in there or that melodelic sound.The title track Rainbows in Curved Air opens and finishes with this looped organ,synth track going around with some trickles of lead synth pouring down with some organ chords ont the side. Second part introduces tamborine professionally played and some backwards organ. That builds to where Riley introduces looped drums and insterments like harpsichord,piano and some keyboard that has this oriental pluck to it. This goes on on tell the piece suddenly stops. We then listen to the live Poppy Nogood and Phantom Band which is played with two to three tape machines playing at a different times to get a looped effect. bass drones start the song and end the song on this one With these wierd brass like insterments building and building kind of like In C.We hear Terry Riley on sax squealing away the the track gos to this brass loop with a drone callback responce.That fades to a heavy bass drone and Terry on sax which is loop for a echo effect with is pretty hyponotizing. The sax gets more intense by the minute and ends with the drone finishing afterward.A great album with a genuis working with anolog tapes with is pretty hard to do probably because your working with tape.Anyways this is an essiential to own. Recommendations would be any Soft Machine album Third on up or Hugh Hopper for thr Riley influence.

3 1/2


Two lengthy ambient tracks that compliment each other in a way that makes them both add up; it isn't all perfectly fresh, but for the most part the sound stays startlingly seductive.

Perhaps I am not the best judge of this music's merit, since most of the other reviewers seem to love it and I just sold my copy for pocket change. But I find the works of Philip Glass more engaging than either composition presented here. Granted, Riley is my second-favorite among minimalist composers, but it is a distant second. The pieces float along amicably enough, but overall I have trouble establishing a mood within the piece or identifying themes I can latch on to. This is better-than-average modern classical music, but I recommend starting with a better-known composer if you are curious about this type of music. Then move on to something like this CD. Before I get a barrage of negative feedback saying I know nothing about music and have no right to criticize this piece, I will admit: that is true. I have no musical training, can't play any instruments, know no music theory, and can't read a note on paper. I'm just interested in new movements in the arts, i.e. minimalism in music, and if you're like me and want to see what this movement is about, try Philip Glass first. If you like getting your feet wet with him, go ahead and dive into this one--you'll enjoy it.

Ok, this LP must have been on Pete Townshend's turntable day and night. Listen to the first track and you'll hear where "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" came from. In fact, the Riley in "Baba O'Riley" IS Terry Riley.

- Vincent G. Marino