Steve Reich

“As to what I would call what I do, I have no name for it other than ‘music’. As to what I refuse while sitting in front of my music sheet, I refuse anything that does not seem to work musically and my ear is the final judge. While composing, I am constantly rejecting material and trying to improve the piece. When I’m done, I’m done and rarely change anything.” Steve Reich has been described by The Guardian as one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history" and as “the greatest musical thinker of our time” by The New Yorker. It was with ECM that the composer first found a home as a recording artist, in 1978, forming a relationship that would last through three influential albums in minimal music – other labels previously put out a single Reich release and then moved on. Released even before ECM’s New Series was founded, the landmark albums Music for 18 Musicians (1978), Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase (1980) and Tehillim (1982) not only cemented the composer’s singular standing, but represent what some consider to be the epitome of minimal music and the core of Reich’s repertory. While both Music for 18 Muisicans and Music for a Large Ensemble employed and developed ideas previously explored, with emphasis on cycles of chords, Tehilim introduced historical themes and the subject of Reich’s Jewish heritage into his compositional approach, which he would continue to explore musically moving forward. At the occasion of Reich’s 80th birthday, the three albums were compiled on The ECM Recordings, a 3-CD box set that includes a 44-page booklet with original liner notes by Steve Reich, a new essay by Paul Griffiths, and session photography by Deborah Feingold and Barbara Klemm.