Erik Hall – Queen City Sounds and Art

Erik Hall’s Reimagining of Charlemagne Palestine’s “Strumming Music” Highlights Its Minimalist/Maximalist Tonal and Rhythmic Flourishes as Sonic Texture

Erik Hall released his new album Solo Three on January 23, 2026 via Western Vinyl. The record features the composer and multi-instrumentalist’s reimagining/reworking of contemporary classical pieces. Minimalist/maximalist composer Charlemagne Palestine will appear at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee in March and Hall’s version of Palestine’s 1974 solo work “Strumming Music” captures in short the energetic movement of the song and the way Palestine orchestrated the shifts in tone and counterpoint across over fifty minutes but in a mere fourteen minutes nineteen seconds. Hall includes a background harmonic drone but maintains the piano of the original and its spare but evolving arrangement like paradoxically analog iterative music so that the piece increases in brightness of pitch and density of rhythms and sonics without drifting into concessions to pop accessibility. As well, Hall preserves the tight but subtle movements within the composition and its performance while putting his own touches in the performance and production so that its essence is expressed while not merely doing a cover. Listen to “Strumming Music” on YouTube and follow Erik Hall at the links provided.

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Listen to Erik Hall’s Bold and Lively Interpretation of Steve Reich’s “Music For a Large Ensemble”

Erik Hall will release his new album Solo Three on January 23, 2026 via Western Vinyl. The composer and multi-instrumentalist interpreted pieces by Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Laurie Spiegel and perhaps most ambitious of the group, “Music For a Large Ensemble” by Steve Reich. The composition originally written in 1978 for at least 23 performers finds its bright, lively spirit in dazzling sonic detail with its component parts supporting, augmenting and complementing each other in short and then longer lines back to those shorter and alterations in accent and volume to bring to the experience of listening an organic feel and one that stimulates the mind with the simple joy of its arrangements. Hall uses a divergent sound palette with synths, organs, pianos, guitar, bass (all performed, recorded and mixed by himself—impressive on its own) to lend a modern almost electronic music aesthetic to one of Reich’s classics. Listen to “Music For a Large Ensemble” on YouTube and follow Erik Hall at the links below.

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Erik Hall’s Interpretation of Simeon ten Hold’s “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” Adds Soothing Textures to the Entrancing Minimalism and Energy of the Original

Erik Hall’s interpretation of Simeon ten Holt’s “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” has a very live and spontaneous sound. The original Canto Ostinato was written for four pianos from 1976 to 1979 has a certain lively energy that runs through the marathon composition. It is a fine example of Twentieth Century minimalism with the shifting tonal harmonies but without the the slide into dissonance. Hall captures the easy yet irresistible pace and seemingly over the top of the relaxing sounds of a flowing creek to give what might be an ethereal work of richly details sonics playing out in an ever-evolving manner as per the aesthetics of minimalism. Listen to “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” on YouTube and follow Erik Hall at the links below. Hall’s full treatment of Canto Ostinato released on February 24, 2023 on Western Vinyl available on multiple formats on Bandcamp linked below as well.

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Erik Hall’s Brilliant Solo Interpretation of Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians Preserves the Relentless Pace and Physicality of the Original With a Smaller Sound Palette

ErikHall_Pulses1 — Erik Hall, photo courtesy the artist

Erik Hall recently conceived of and recorded his interpretation of Steve Reich’s seminal, avant-garde, 1976 masterpiece Music For 18 Musicians (due out May 8, 2020 via Western Vinyl). Hall’s version of the aforementioned work is only the second ever successfully accomplished by a solo artist. The lead single from the record, one of the sections of “Pulses,” was performed with muted pianos, electric guitar and synth. But as with the original, the relentless pace, the percussive and textural quality to the tones that convey a physicality like getting the raw data packets, the very quanta, of existence as expressed through a minimal flow of composed and arranged sounds that contain a diverse complexity in themselves. Reich’s 1976 performance of the music was aptly titled and used classical instruments in a unique way to almost mimic what electronic music would sound like later and in its way it must be seen as an influence on ambient music much as was John Cage, 60s avant-garde, early synth music, Krautrock and library music. Listen to a sample of Hall’s loving rendition of Reich’s music on Soundcloud and connect with Erik Hall at the links below.

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