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Terry Riley

Born in Colfax, California, Riley studied at Shasta College, San Francisco State University. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center working with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath (1918-1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

Born in Colfax, California, Riley studied at Shasta College, San Francisco State University. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center working with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath (1918-1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

Again & Again
This is the third and final chapter of a project/research on "minimalisms" that the Italian flutist Manuel Zurria, acclaimed instrumentalist and passionate lover of the more adventurous contemporary music, began in 2007. The double CD include near two and a half hours of music, which reveal how much different the approaches to the beloved "minimalist" verb can be. And how much an inquiring and participatory interpretation can lead to exciting results. In this brilliant collection Zurria not only…
Terry Riley and Don Cherry Duo
Another incredible treasure from the vaults of Cologne radio, recorded in late February 1975. In this duo improvisation Terry Riley's organ intersections just define the geometry of the hyper-dimensional space where Don Cherry's outwordly trumpet lives. Mantric and evocative, we could go on and on listening to the very same track all day long, it could last forever...In 1975, pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley and jazz trumpet cosmonaut Don Cherry joined forces for a magnetic performance…
The Lion's Throne
The Lion’s Throne bears witness to the performances that the legendary composer Terry Riley and Italian singer Amelia Cuni did together in the United Kingdom and Italy between 1999 and 2006. Riley, whose remarkable body of work seamlessly integrates a lifetime of devotion to Indian classical music into the western classical tradition, collaborates with Cuni, a singer trained in Dhrupad who, like Riley, experiments with Indian singing in a variety of ways.In these recordings, Riley plays piano or…
Live in Paris, 1975 by France Musique FM
Exclusive french live recordings of Terry Riley's psychedelic organ work, hot on the heels of the 1972 masterpiece Persian Surgery Dervishes. Riley is in stunning form playing the kind of endlessly rippling dosed organ drones with a sense of stasis in expansion that is uniquely brain-razzing. These two untitled performance are lush and dreamlike, inducing a state of trance. Another stunning document of the 'minimalism' golden era.
Live At La Salle Wagram Paris 1975
Terry Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes is a long-form piece from a concert in Paris (on November 19) 10 days later the legendary performance held at the Metamusik Festival in Berlin. Essential for all fans of 20th Century Minimalism and electronics. Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes renders the West Coast minimalist deity in pursuit of a flighty solo spirit via modified Yamaha organ fitted with variable resistors to enable his favoured just intonation tuning - a method allowing him to…
In C
**50th anniversary, limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on transparent vinyl** Terry Riley's influential minimalist piece In C is available again on vinyl, as a limited deluxe edition. As one of the first minimalist compositions and a masterpiece of this genre it's a response to the modern music that dominated the scene in 1968. The piece inspired a lot of famous composers, like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. In C consists of repeating cells and different rhythms, loosely based on…
In C Mali
2015 release. Terry Riley's In C Mali by Africa Express is the first ever recording of Riley’s minimalist work by an African ensemble. In C Mali was originally written by Terry Riley in 1964. Upon hearing this new version the composer said that he was “overwhelmed and delighted”. The piece is conducted by Anton De Ridder who has lent his expertise to Max Richter, Jonny Greenwood and These New Puritans to name but a few.
Music For The Gift
**Astonishing unreleased archival Terry Riley material finally available on LP, a true and rare slice of history released on wax**By the early 1960s pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley had just completed a MA in composition from UC Berkeley, begun working at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, along with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros, among others, and had started to compose prolifically. Though his first “proper” album would not be released for several years, in 19…
Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets
Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets, originally released in 1983. Recorded live in Munich in 1982 using two Prophet synthesizers and voice, this album is a reflection of Riley's ongoing interest in melding improvisation, electronic music, and the raga vocal stylings of his mentor, Pandit Pran Nath. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be improvised upon…
Early Works For Tape And Electronics
Unofficial release. Few copies available. Terry Riley's incredible early tape manipulation works from the 1960s, “Bird of Paradise” and “You’re No Good. Incredible audio quality
Six Pianos / Keyboard Study #1
After the widely noticed performance at the "Acht Brücken Festival 2016" at Cologne's Philharmonic Hall, Gregor Schwellenbach, Hauschka, Erol Sarp (of Grandbrothers), Daniel Brandt and Paul Frick (both of Brandt Brauer Frick) and John Kameel Farah release their interpretation of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" as a studio recording via FILM. The re-recording of this piece is an interpretation of Reich's composition but still far more than just that - it is a modern approach to his idea behind it. The…
Terry Riley and Krishna Bhatt Duo
Double-CD set presenting two radio sessions recorded in Cologne in 1984, carefully remastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes, an astonishing example of Terry's tactile and meditative approach - and audio quality is just crystal! Emotive and trance-inducing, it's like finding a new, secret entrance to one of our favourite composers.Considered one of the pioneers (along with colleague La Monte Young) of the minimalist movement, pianist-composer Terry Riley introduced the concept of endless r…
Church Of Anthrax
Replica mini-LP edition. Terry Riley (piano, organ, soprano saxophone) & John Cale (bass, harpsichord, piano, guitar, viola, organ) collaborated on this one-off album, released in 1970. At this time, rock music was a serious movement, removed from the joke it once was, quite unaware of the joke it would eventually become, and things like this sometimes happened. Cale, classically trained on the viola, must have been pretty pleased to get a shot to record with the '60s king of minimalist pu…
Rainbow In Cologne
Mystical, largely organ-based live concert by legendary experimental composer Terry Riley. Terry Riley’s organ and tape loops concerts are the stuff of legend and it’s pretty marvelous to finally have this astonishing performance released. "Minimalist composer Terry Riley premiered his work 'In C' in 1964, a big influence on minimalism in contemporary composition and on subsequent works bycomposers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams. 1967’s 'A Rainbow In Curved Air' and its companionp…
The 3 Generations Trio
The 3 Generations Trio' features the high priest of minimalism himself, Terry Riley, on synthesizer, piano, vocals and harmonizer, Gyan Riley on electric and acoustic guitars and Tracy Silverman on acoustic and electric violins. This work is a fascinating sonic trip (often driven by Riley's unique vocal ragas) through Asian and African traditions as well as western classical and jazz, reworked through modern aesthetics.
Live In Koln February 23, 1975
2016 Repress. A legendary recording that pairs Don Cherry’s heavenly trumpet stylings, Terry Riley’s psychedelic/minimalist organ work and the vibes of Bengt Berger in a great live concert recorded in Koln in 1975. Riley is in stunning form playing the kind of endlessly rippling dosed organ drones with a sense of stasis in expansion that is uniquely brain-razzing. Cherry’s playing is heart-stoppingly beautiful, curling slow, melancholy arcs and threading high angel tones through Riley’s e…
One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley (5-CD
In honor of groundbreaking American composer Terry Riley’s 80th birthday, Nonesuch Records releases One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley—a five-disc box set of four albums of his work composed for, and performed by, his longtime friends and champions Kronos Quartet—on June 23, 2015, in North America and July 10 for the rest of the world. Riley and Kronos met more than 35 years ago, and since then, the quartet has commissioned 27 works from him, more than from any other compo…
In C
A very special and unique performance of Terry Riley's iconic 1964 minimalist piece "In C", previously unreleased. Riley and the Roberto Cacciapaglia Ensemble together at the Aterforum festival in Ferrara, Italy, on July 9, 1988.
Aleph
*2022 stock.* In his liner notes to Aleph, Terry Riley explains that the work was created as "an improvised meditation on the various meanings of this supreme emanation from the Hebrew alphabet." It was made using a Korg Triton Studio 88 synth with his own sound design, and employing a just intonation scale used by Lou Harrison on his last work, "Nek Chand for Just Intonation National Steel Guitar," which was performed by Riley's son Gyan on the album Serenado. Riley has been using the scale for…
I Like Your Eyes Liberty
"A new collaboration by poet Michael McClure and Terry Riley recorded at the Sri Moonshine Ranch (2003-2004) features the mesmerizing voice of McClure on his own Plumstones: Cartoons Of No Heaven and Ghost Tantras. Riley creates a spellbinding counterpart on his Yamaha Midi Grand piano improvising an effortless undulating sound current which sensuously embraces the rich imagery. A real marriage of two masters of psychedelia."
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