Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich)

by Erik Hall

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chicken egg: O Hypnotic, transporting, crystalline. A recording that stands just as strongly next to the original release. Favorite track: Section VII.

ben1992 Beautiful recording of a beautiful performance of a beautiful piece Favorite track: Section I.

clockenfrau I was going through a real ambient phase a few years ago when spotify recommended this album to me, and I could tell from the first 20 seconds I was going to adore it. And I still do. Hard to find a better way to describe the sound of it that 'lovely', though it feels insufficient. My favourite thing to listen to on long train journeys and late night walks. Favorite track: Pulses.

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Limited Edition Compact Disc
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CD in a gatefold 4-panel wallet with beautiful artwork by Aaron Denton.

Includes unlimited streaming of Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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12" vinyl album
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
• 12" vinyl LP pressed in Detroit at Third Man Pressing
• Artwork by Aaron Lowell Denton
• Mastered by Warren Defever
• Mixed by Brian Deck and Erik Hall

Includes unlimited streaming of Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Pulses 04:12	buy track
2.	Section I 04:04	buy track
3.	Section II 04:03	buy track
4.	Section IIIA 03:46	buy track
5.	Section IIIB 03:59	buy track
6.	Section IV 04:53	buy track
7.	Section V 04:48	buy track
8.	Section VI 03:56	buy track
9.	Section VII 03:33	buy track
10.	Section VIII 03:19	buy track
11.	Section IX 04:04	buy track
12.	Section X 01:18	buy track
13.	Section XI 04:12	buy track
14.	Pulses II 03:47	buy track

about

A re-interpretation so often comes from an impulse, even if subliminal, of one-upmanship – let me do better, wait ‘til you hear it my way. Sometimes though, and it happens too rarely, the cover is an act of devotion in which a musician’s humility produces something more beautiful than bravura could. When Erik Hall undertook his painstaking reconstruction of Steve Reich’s 1976 masterpiece of minimalism, “Music for Eighteen Musicians”, it was as much an exercise in modesty as ambition. With its repetitions and complex constructions, the piece makes great demands on stamina and concentration, and Reich himself advised that these challenges meant it should probably be performed with more than eighteen musicians. Hall, however, recorded every part himself in his small home studio, playing instruments he had on hand, in live, single takes. Here, then is the ambition. But here too is the modesty: by doing one section a day, one instrument at a time, he made his way through this monumental piece, building a faithful and loving re-creation, one sonic brick at a time. Xylophone becomes muted piano, violin becomes electric guitar and so it is that music for eighteen becomes music for one. “I didn’t want it to be distracting, or a gimmick,” says Hall, who’s loved the piece for as long as he can remember. “I wanted it to be true to the timbre and spirit of the original recording,” and he thought a great deal about, “how I would shape the tone of each instrument, to come across with the same impact that we know the piece to have.” His methodology, as with Reich’s piece itself, is workmanlike, and it’s from this humble and steadfast undertaking that something honest and radiant emerges. – Hermione Hoby

credits

released May 8, 2020

Performed and recorded by Erik Hall at home in Galien, Michigan, February 2019, using prepared piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond M-101 organ, Moog Sub 37 synthesizer, Nord Lead synthesizer, electric guitar, electric bass, Roland CR-68 drum machine, and processed voice.

Composed by Steve Reich, 1974 - 1976

Mixed with Brian Deck at Narwhal Studios, Chicago, IL

Mastered by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering, Detroit, MI

Artwork by Aaron Lowell Denton

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