Terry Riley
A Rainbow in Curved Air

One of the most influential users of the overdubbing technique, that is to say studio layering, in historical-musical terms, was undoubtedly Terry Riley, a notable artist tied to the minimalist current, or rather, its variant at its roots. Minimal music has as its artistic ancestors the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg and serialism, which is also a child of the previous compositional technique devised by the already mentioned Schoenberg. From these, it takes the stylistic peculiarity that consists in the repetition of a drone (sustained chord or note) throughout the development of the composition. Terry Riley is associated and placed on the same wavelength as the sacred monsters of experimental music, like La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. The main and original goal of minimalist artists is to make avant-garde music more accessible and more pleasant to the listener's ear by eliminating the excessive abstraction that, according to them, leads to total unsustainable sound. Minimal music or "new music," if you will, has as its prerogative the disharmony that should not be confused with discordance: the disharmony in question consists in the absence of a musical structure that unravels as the piece extends. At first glance, one is faced with repetitive and inexpressive music; in reality, the repetition of the same sequence of notes involves a slightly perceptible change to which other variations are added later, which in turn give rise to a complex sound tapestry. The inspiration that minimalist composers find in Eastern music is a striking sign of their constant search for a magical-hypnotic atmosphere that leads the listener to daydream, to explore new dimensions of reality, to discover the various facets of existence. Starting from this assumption, one can say that minimalists are like gurus, spiritual masters.

Returning to Terry Riley, the term “innovator” can be attributed to him. Together with La Monte Young, he turns out to be the most illustrious and notable of his “category.” In 1969, the Californian artist reached the peak of artistry with his fourth album, named “A Rainbow in Curved Air.” Curved Air? Didn't the '70s perhaps welcome a progressive rock band called Curved Air? Indeed, yes, Darryl Way's band was inspired for the name by Terry Riley's album. The object in question is an LP composed of only two pieces about twenty minutes long, each occupying a side, entirely instrumental (it is very rare for a vocalist to appear in a minimalist track).

The title track is extraordinarily complex: innumerable instruments are played by Riley alone, such as the electric organ, a particular electric harpsichord (The Rock-Si-Chord), the Dumbec, otherwise known as the Darabouka, an unusual percussion instrument of Eastern origin, and the tambourine. The Rock-Si-Chord, as mentioned earlier, is a type of electric harpsichord invented in 1967, so two years before it was used by the American artist, whose purpose was to reproduce sound as close as possible to that of a regular harpsichord. Why not use a normal harpsichord? As the name suggests, the Rock-Si-Chord was created to be used in rock contexts as an old-style harpsichord risked being overshadowed by other typical instruments of the "new" genre, both in studio and live. In short, Riley was one of the first to use this new model of keyboard instrument: before him, only the Chicago psychedelic band Mandrake Memorial and composer George Crumb. The Rock-Si-Chord is employed throughout the suite along with the electric organ on a unique melodic base of fourteen notes. On the other hand, the Tarabouka is a percussion instrument used in Arab countries, which in its shape resembles a chalice. There are several variants, varying from country to country (Egyptian, Turkish, Moroccan, Indian, etc.). In Western music, the Dumbec had already been used by classical musicians, but no one in the rock field, before Riley, had experimented with it. Consequently, after about twelve minutes from the start of the track “A Rainbow in Curved Air,” one can hear the sound of this alien instrument for the first time in rock history. Until the end, the artist indulges in a dumbec solo that culminates in a sudden interruption: the title track has concluded. The following “Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band” is a mixture of jazz and minimalist music: electric organ and soprano saxophone go hand in hand. The “Phantom Band” mentioned coincides with the so-called “Patch Cord,” an electrical cable used in music as a connector between an electric instrument (e.g., synthesizer) and an amplifier.

The album significantly influenced the rock culture of future generations: “Tubular Bells,” Mike Oldfield's 1973 debut album, the first album published by the newly founded Virgin Records, is inspired by “A Rainbow in Curved Air” in its structure and in the use of multiple instruments thanks to the overdubbing technique. The Who, the famous band of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, titled their magnificent piece “Baba O’Riley” (“Who's Next” 1971) as a reference both to the minimalist artist and the Indian spiritual master, Meher Baba. Unfortunately, as often happens, history, or at least a certain part of history, even in the musical field, fades into oblivion: we easily forget pioneers without whom certain things would never have had the opportunity to exist and it is, more than tragic, grotesque as a fact. We must remember. We must not lose consciousness of the past, in every sense. We must fear oblivion, believe in the past, and rework it to give birth to new experiences and artistic creations. Terry Riley is part of the history mostly erased from memory, he has become a cult figure. From this awareness, those who know him should find courage to recommend him to others, to spread him. A figure like Riley should be studied in universities and conservatories. I apologize for the temporary collective “I”: we need to revive the experimental music of minimalist origin. If not us, who?