The music of minimalist composer Terry Riley has always had a special place on my turntable and in my CD player. His 1967 album, A Rainbow in Curved Air is the perfect thing to put on when guests are over—it creates a great mood but never overpowers conversation—and you can bliss out on it like a meditation mantra (the composer’s intent, obviously). You can hear parts of it behind the narration of the original BBC radio broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe and it’s on the radio station in Grand Theft Auto IV. Chances are that even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve heard it many times.
 

 
In the 1960s Riley used to play all night concerts, with audience members showing up with sleeping bags. He’d use tape loops to accompany himself, letting them run by themselves when he had to take bathroom breaks. His 1964 piece “In C,” where the same series of notes are played over and over and over again by (at least) 35 musicians, with a single anchor melody of a “C” note played at octaves as eighth notes (serving as the metronome or “pulse” and played preferably by “a beautiful girl,” as the music’s notation instructs) is considered the very first minimalist composition. At a recital of “In C” at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, 124 musicians took part.
 

 
The repetitive synth section that leads off The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” was inspired by Riley’s signature sound and the title is a portmanteau of his name and that of Indian mystic Meher Baba. He also did a collaboration with John Cale—both of them heavily influenced by LaMonte Young—called Church of Anthrax, which is absolutely amazing and deserves a post of its own at a later date.

Another piece of the puzzle fits into place, I always wondered who created those curious ambient sounds in the HHGTTG radio serial.

As I remember, John Cale was himself one of the players of that seminal performance of In C (and I think Steve Reich was also one).

I once had the opportunity to play in a performance of “In C”.

It was a mind bending experience, one that left me feeling high for a few days afterwards. I literally couldn’t sleep that evening after the performance. We played it for about 2 hours.

It was also disconcerting because, in terms of execution (I was playing a vibraphone) one simply can’t fuck up when playing “In C”. Let’s just say it’s really noticeable? A fuck up can also mis-calibrate the whole mechanism.

Certainly one of the best musical moments of my life! Riley is a God.

“It’s Gonna Rain!”

One of my faves…

ifthenwhy, “Its gonna rain” was composed by Steve Reich, not Riley

Also present at the creation (the original Columbia 1967 recording of ‘In C’):  Jon Hassell.

“fthenwhy, “Its gonna rain” was composed by Steve Reich, not Riley
“

Doh…Thanks! Yeah..I always lump that one in with Riley for some reason. Same universe at least?

A Rainbow in Curved Air is one of my favorite pieces of music, ever.

I remember hearing it for the first time on LP in the UCLA music library and having my 19-year-old mind completely blown.

I was lucky enough to work with Mr Riley around 8 years ago.He was proboly the most humble and brilliant musicians ever.
I would love to see Church of the Anthrax reissued on cd !

Patrick Smith would love to see Church of Anthrax on CD.  Well it is on CD, courtesy of a label called Wounded Bird which picks up those parts of the Columbia back catalogue that Sony can’t be bothered to keep in print themselves.  Personally, I passed on ‘Anthrax’ and instead bought ‘Curved Air’ the last time I had a look at available Terry Riley CDs. (That was after I had been to a recording of a BBC radio programme on US minimalist composers which included a fabulous performance of ‘In C’ by members of the BBC Concert Orchestra).