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Rating: Review A:
"I have discovered that the most interesting music consists simply of aligning loops in unison and letting them slowly phase out of sync with each other" (Steve Reich)
It's not easy to assign a precise classification to the monumental work of the father of minimalism (alongside Terry Riley). This box set "Phases" (from 2006) reconstructs the highlights of the work of what the Village Voice calls "the greatest living American composer".
In the Reichian world, we find intact the aesthetic and stylistic motifs that have led to his enormous spread in Europe first and also across the channel: the frantic search for Minimal Tonal Variation that multiplies, fractures, repeats and recomposes into an obsessive and continuous puzzle without interruptions, without subdivisions of any kind into a unicuum devoid of spatial/temporal placement. A frantic search bordering on obsessiveness started with the study and fine-tuning of "phasing", practically the superimposition of various voices with disorienting effects indebted to certain explorations in twelve-tone music (a pursuit also continued by the young Philip Glass, much more famous even in non-experimental circuits) and continued with other studies adjacent to the decomposition of the minimal sound unit: the basic nucleus of entire musicality.
Regardless, with this monumental work, Maestro Reich marks a fundamental milestone in his human and artistic journey and unfolds, one after the other, 5 works that are now milestones of his career: starting with "Music for 18 Musicians" and concluding with the suite of "Drumming", a 1971 work still very current: 90 minutes of percussion on female vocal bases and flute that already outlined still uncharted sound openings.
A truly exhaustive work this "Phases", but one that's difficult to endure in its entirety (unless listened to as a sound background in entirely different contexts) given the slow and inexhaustible obsessive cyclicity and often unsettling microvariations often imperceptible to the less attentive ear.
Yes, it's beautiful but to be savored in small doses and at particular moments of the day, when you want to distance yourself from this world and perceive other dimensions I dare say "extraterrestrial". A difficult judgment that leaves me halfway, but I opt for the maximum: Rating 5 stars!
Stronko
Review B:
Din din din din din din din din din din din din din din din din don din din din din din don din din din din din din din din din din din din din din din don din din din din din din din din din din don din din din din din …
well, if you've noticed the DON among the many DIN, you are ready to listen to this terrifyingly convoluted double-handed trick and delve into the hallucinatory landscape of this minimalist wrist-slashing music (the one for rapid bleeding, so to speak!).
I, who can't stand the DONs even in Church, tell you right away that this album often makes my head spin, and not only that.
One CD wasn't enough but a full 5 bricks of breath-takingly verbose repetitiveness. Already halfway through the first one, you want to throw them all in the trash compactor and even put on Povia in the CD player.
Oh yes, here lies the Summa, the Gotha of American Intelligentsia (Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny, Philip Glass among the musicians featured) but that doesn't change the fact that, upon reaching the 3rd CD and if you're even slightly inclined to frustration, you want to tell this whole useless, arrogant, introspective, intellectual elite—closed in on itself making music that "leads to nothing"—a resounding "who gives a damn?!". Let's say, it's nice and even pleasant in small doses, like as background when you cut onions or watch Porta a Porta on TV. But DO NOT listen to it with true intention.
There's enough to really shoot yourself in the nuts. A judgment that leaves me halfway satisfied, but I opt for the minimum: rating 1 star.
LestoB
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