“Pulses” (Steve Reich song) – Queen City Sounds and Art

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.