Label: Chatham Square Productions – LP 24
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Europadisk pressing
Country: US
Released: 1977
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Style: Modern Classical, Minimal
Two stonewall, enduring classic pieces in the minimalism canon composed by American artist Jon Gibson and released by Philip Glass via his short-lived but influential Chatham Square Productions imprint. The long-form pipe organ piece Cycles utilises sustained tones and subtle melodic chord progressions to create this expansive, unresolved sonic vista that feels like its stretching out to infinity. It’s truly devastating, harnessing the epic presence of the organ and the power of over-tonal clusters to produce a genuinely moving experience achieved with seemingly so little. Otherside, ‘Untitled’ for the alto flute sees the same melody eked out and explored, improvising varying phrases, tempo changes and articulations – essentially looking at the same thing from various angles and getting under the skin of the sound. If ever there was a record that encompasses the power of minimalist composition.. this be it. (NM/NM)