August 2000

Today Pole 3 Kiff 017CD The Germans are at it again. Well, in this particular case it's only one. Stefan Betke. With Pole he makes chilled out electronic dub reggae. Without drums... Plenty of vinyl-like crackles and pops, though. Strange but quite kewl.

Yesterday Terry Riley In C CBS MK 7178 Written in 1964, recorded in 1968, this was the birth of the 'commercial minimalism'. Without In C, much of the interesting music for the last 30 years would be very different. Although this recording was made strictly with acoustic instruments, today you mostly find the traces in electronica. This 53 piece jigsaw puzzle is so open, that a performance may take anywhere from 5 minutes up to forever. In C has been played by some very colorful ensembles, eg a group of 18 marimbas in Mexico and a rock band from Canada. Some friends of mine did an acoustic 2-hour version for the Swedish Radio in 1978. Like Bolero, In C was of course banned by the Swedish Mental Institutes...