Maya Beiser | Maya Beiser X Terry Riley: In C
(Islandia Music)
One of the founding texts of Minimalism, Terry Riley's In C, composed in 1964, is typically performed by at least a dozen musicians, although sometimes ranging as high as 10 times that. In honor of its 60th anniversary, avant-garde cellist Maya Beiser has reinvented the piece—more a selection of instructions with choices, rather than a fully notated composition—for solo cello and wordless vocals plus two percussionists. The result is quintessential Beiser, whose creative reinventions have included works by Bach, Olivier Messiaen, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and a complete cello rendition of David Bowie's Blackstar album.
Recorded at her home studio in the Berkshires and mixed in Saugerties, Beiser's In C is both an intriguing conceptual achievement and a hypnotic, nearly ecstatic listening experience. Whereas Riley's original was conceived as a kind of organized group improvisation, Beiser takes advantage of state-of-the-art looping technology to slowly build and layer her cello phrases into a monumental, near-orchestral statement of rhythmic and harmonic bliss, which can be equally enjoyed as a high-volume blast of pure pulsating energy or as a near-subconscious 55 minutes of ambient sound. Beiser makes full use of her versatile cellist's tool kit, including buzzing rhythms, low-level drones, and soaring melody lines, all of which interlock into a musical construction of grand architectural proportions. The end result is joyful and poignant, haunting and alarming—a new kind of music of the spheres, a place where I want to live.
