7. Philip GlassSolo Piano
I didn’t get into Philip Glass until – I’m so embarrassed – a boy put ‘Mad Rush’ on a mix CD for me and I was like “Ooh!” And that’s how I discovered this recording of ‘Mad Rush’ and then this whole record. I listened to ‘Mad Rush’ for nine months on long lonely walks. The whole record blends into one for me. In the past I’ve listened to recordings of Philip Glass by other pianists, and they felt too mannered, too perfect. What I like about Philip Glass, and he is the composer so maybe I’m making this up, but he plays his songs more humanly than a lot of other pianists have on recordings. There are moments when he hits the wrong note, or he almost hits the wrong note, or the timing is loose and it just feels very intimate, as if he’s in your house, but with perfect reverb and acoustics. For me this was the first record where I was interested in composition, not just in rock music, and it opened me up to exploring Terry Riley and other people. I probably discovered this before Tony Conrad, who’s not really a minimalist composer in this way. But it opened me up to that, to thinking about giving in to this world of music. I think before I felt too intimidated, but with Philip Glass the emotional centre is right there, in the foreground, so it’s accessible if you haven’t grown up with classical composition.
