Lost Property, Brighton’s alternative arts collective, will be curating an event in celebration of Terry Riley‘s birthday on Saturday 27 June. The American composer, who turns 80 this year, will be commemorated by having his pivotal masterwork, In C, performed by a 25-piece ensemble. Led by Adam Bushel, the ensemble will consist of players of various disciplines. Voices, keys, guitars and tuned percussion will be joined by violins, flutes and a cornet, among other instruments, to reinterpret Riley’s 1964 minimalist classic for the 21st Century. The event will take place at the One Church, Brighton and is also promising to include performances of Riley’s lesser-known pieces.
Andrew Greaves and Daniel WJ Mackenzie will both be performing original compositions inspired by Riley’s work, while Asami Nishimura will ruminate on the composer’s 1965 solo piece for piano, Keyboard Study #1. In an ode to the charming nuances of obsolete technology, Duncan Harrison will be re-creating You’re No Good. This twenty-minute piece was itself a re-arrangement of The Harvey Averne Dozen’s soul tune of the same name. For his hauntingly modernist jive, Riley optimised “two reel to reel tape machines twisting in and out of sync amongst passages of heavy proto-synth oscillation, ring modulation, tape delay and echo”, to achieve a breathtaking and disorientating trip.
Lost Property was responsible for last year’s outstanding Fort Process festival as well as for Splitting the Atom, a series of free experimental music and sound events in Brighton. Their aim is to establish a working relationship between forgotten architectural spaces and vibrant, explorative music. Tickets for Terry Riley’s In C are available here. For more details, please visit the Facebook event page.
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