Search - Terry Riley :: The book Of Abbeyozzud

Not Your Usual Terry Riley

jaypaint | Chicago, IL USA | 12/13/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have loved Terry Riley's work for many years. This CD is no exception. However, it is not the minimalist-raga Riley that I am used to. This is a set of beautifully performed guitar pieces that are melodic, tonal, and very Spanish in influence. Definitely a change from Mr. Riley's usual fair, but wonderful nonetheless!"

Terry Riley churns our yet another purely minimalist recordi

Terry the Blueberry | Montreal, QC Canada | 05/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just kidding!! Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although, there is some cyclic repetition of module type ideas, but the work as a whole hardly qualifies as what is conditionally known as minimalism. Does anybody still believe the year is 1969? Well, than why believe that Terry Riley is still 'IN C' when he has made countless works that pretty much defy genre. Just had to get that out of my system.



The compositions are full of long, catchy, rhythmically inventive phrases. Lots of poly- rhythms too! All musically applied of course! The ensemble playing is great, and the tones, colours and textures are beautiful. Terry Riley writes beautifully for strings and now guitar too! This work as far as I know is a unique one in Terry's library, and even in my entire musical collection and maybe even in the worlds entire cd collection. The song asencion does appear on the much overlooked Atlantis Nath recording, but in a completely different context- instead with Terry playing it on his piano, solo. breathtaking!



Lastly this album has a heavy spanish/moroccan influence which is incredibly fused together with classical/gamelan/whatever else terry pulls for his vast gamut. I've always loved certain elements of traditional flamenco /spanish guitar music but never entirely. There's something I can't put my finger on, but to me personally I always wished it would change it's direction here and there. Terry Riley has made that music for my fantasy mind to hear! glorious! This cd is particularly special to me for that reason, and I think that is one of Terry Riley's exceptional talents - fusing together disparate styles of music in a completely natural way.



Highly recommend!!"