Steve Reich – Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint
I first got hold of this in University from the library on CD and I must have kept it and just kept on renewing it for months and months… the first time I’d come across minimalism but also the use of tape loops, the delaying of time, the way he communicates history through these tracks. Amazing. When it was Liverpool Capital of Culture in 2008 I ran an AV music festival and part of it was at the Bluecoat Arts Centre where I had a string quartet called the Smith Quartet perform Different Trains. I’d commissioned a local artist to make footage to accompany their performance and it was so amazing to hear it done live with the tapes and then the visuals being created at the same time. Incredible.