Music for the silent film 'Man With a Movie Camera' (1929 - USSR) by Dziga Vertov, followed by 'Petite collection de rêves étranges et pièces plaisantes'. French avant-prog unit Art Zoyd formed in 1969 around the core of bassist Thierry Zaboitzeff, percussionist Jean-Pierre Soarez, and violin player Gérard Hourbette, with guitarist Rocco Fernandez, pianist Patricia Dallio, percussionist Daniel Denis (who later formed Univers Zero), and a changing lineup of half-a-dozen additional instrumentalists. In 1975, Zaboitzeff took over the group and changed its musical direction. The personnel would be narrowed to include two violins, electric bass, and trumpet, as evidenced by their debut full-length, Symphonie Pour le Jour Ou Bruleront les Cités, self-released in 1976.

Steve Reich is the self-renewer of his one-time minimalist peers, able to revitalise his output just at the point when accusations of resting on laurels start to surface. By 1980, he had seemingly exhausted the possibilities of eight years of harmony-based writing, and aural wallpaper felt worryingly close. Tehilim changed all that: with its grounding in Hebrew cantilation and complex though always dancing rhythmic surround, this was Reich at his absolute best. The four Psalm texts–never so literal as to be settings–form a half-hour vocal "symphony", in impact though emphatically not in conception.