Colin Currie, Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals - Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

One of Steve Reich’s most famous and enduring works, Music for 18 Musicians first caught the attention of percussionist Colin Currie in the 1980s. Over the years that followed, Currie dutifully built his library of Reich scores and recordings, but it was this work in particular that truly captured his imagination, holding him in its epic grasp ever since.

Of Reich’s comprehensive catalogue, it is this warm and resonant composition that signifies a major breakthrough in the sphere of minimalist music. “The perfect musical beehive” is how Currie describes performing the piece—and it’s easy to see why, with each musician purposefully teasing the material along, playing their own brilliantly contained part, yet contributing to something greater that hums with life.

Following the success of his previous Steve Reich albums, Steve Reich: Drumming (2018) and Colin Currie & Steve Reich Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton (2019), Currie is joined on this album by his closest musical colleagues and companions, the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals, who recorded the work at London’s Abbey Road Studios in November 2022.

Steve Reich is a musical colossus. Of immeasurable influence on music’s development for over six decades, his output inspires, challenges, and above all captivates. I first heard his work as a teenager, an immediate obsession with Music for 18 Musicians leading to a comprehensive investigation of his other works. Forming an ensemble devoted to a huge number of these, and indeed a brand new one, has been an incredible adventure, that has brought together a brilliant group of players all of whom also grew up knowing and loving this music.

I met the composer in 2011, at a concert of ours at London’s Southbank Centre, when we unleashed our version of Drumming on his ears for the first time. Overwhelmed by the direction we had taken the piece in, and delighted by the fresh approach of a new generation of players, this marked the beginning of his association with the group, as frequent adviser and supporter of what we do. This relationship has been of an immensely rewarding nature, as we continue to absorb invaluable insight into a broad range of his pieces.

Our aim is to bring this music to as wide an audience as possible. We are driven by its magical allure, its energy and its sheer excitement. Our own Quartet (2014) is a pure joy, and another fascinating turn in this composer’s endeavours. Fresh, supple, haunting, it is an astounding addition to our repertoire, even as the composer nears his 80th birthday.

This group celebrates all that Reich has achieved: his legacy to music of such incredible width and unequalled originality. We salute and cherish him, and relish bringing it all to life in concert.

Music for 18 Musicians (1974-6) was a hit for Steve Reich when it was released in 1978 on the ECM label, selling 100,000 records in its first year. Scored for a chamber ensemble of percussion, pianos, strings, woodwinds and voices, Music for 18 is developed on a sequence of 11 chords where “one pattern morphs into another, addicted to the groove and pulse of the music.”

Tracklist:
1. Music for 18 Musicians: Pulses (5:10)
2. Music for 18 Musicians: Section I (4:30)
3. Music for 18 Musicians: Section II (5:15)
4. Music for 18 Musicians: Section IIIA (5:00)
5. Music for 18 Musicians: Section IIIB (4:00)
6. Music for 18 Musicians: Section IV (4:49)
7. Music for 18 Musicians: Section V (5:36)
8. Music for 18 Musicians: Section VI (5:29)
9. Music for 18 Musicians: Section VII (4:31)
10. Music for 18 Musicians: Section VIII (4:07)
11. Music for 18 Musicians: Section IX (4:53)
12. Music for 18 Musicians: Section X (1:26)
13. Music for 18 Musicians: Section XI (4:25)
14. Music for 18 Musicians: Pulses II (4:52)


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