Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians Colin Currie Group; Synergy Vocals Colin Currie Records CCR 0006 (CD/SACD) 63:54 mins
The collaboration of virtuoso percussionist Colin Currie, a group of his favourite musicians and the vocal group Synergy Vocals has resulted in this album of Steve Reich’s piece Music for 18 Musicians. The combination of xylophones, marimbas, vibraphone, clarinets and bass clarinets, pianos, violin and cello draws on some compositional devices inspired by the musical worlds of 12th-century organum, Balinese gamelan music and indeed the contemporary soundworld surrounding Reich in the 1970s. Like any composer, Reich didn’t live in a social vacuum and there were sonorities from this period hinted at; ‘Section V’, for example, has piano riffs reminiscent of Keith Jarrett, while vocals add some jazz inspired ranges, and there are even whiffs of rock bass lines.
Currie’s connection with this music is unashamedly deep, bordering on the spiritual, explaining ‘when you ‘plug-in’ to this music… there is an astonishing feeling of elevation that approaches levitation…’ Likewise, the listener’s relationship with this recording is dependent on the ability to enter a place of stillness and meditation. Despite the breadth of dynamics, the long-range harmony and repetitive nature of the grooves offer little in the way of surprise – rather this is music of contemplation and placidity.
Anne Templer