Octet (1980)
3 tracks, 47 minutes
Spotify
If you’ve been reading this blog a little bit already, you’ll understand why Steve Reich is one of my favourite Western classical composers. The technique he is most famous for, and that is demonstrated so excellently on this release, is that of shifting phase: a short melody or other musical idea is repeated over and over, while another version of that idea is played simultaneously but at an ever so slightly different speed, or using a different number of beats, meaning that the patterns of consonances, dissonances and silences change subtly with every repetition. The effect in an ever-evolving journey into the music itself, the sound of the instruments and your own brain, which, in searching for meaning among the musical chaos, conjures intense musical moiré. Endlessly repeating melodies evolving through minute variation? We already know that that’s extremely my bag.
Octet as an album is really successful in capturing Reich’s techniques in some of the most easily understandable but still intensely interesting repertoire. The three pieces that are included here each show off Reich’s phasing in different ways. ‘Music for a Large Ensemble’ uses a familiar orchestra-style set up and includes beautiful and cinematic swells from strings and vibraphones on top of his more standard rhythmically-phased themes. The next is ‘Violin Phase,’ an earlier composition that shows his phasing in a stripped-back form, with literally six beats of melody repeated on three violins that slowly grow further out of sync with each other and back again over the course of 15 minutes. ‘Octet’ (which was later tweaked and entitled ‘Eight Lines’) uses several different melodies to phase in different ways throughout the piece, but which change so slowly as to change almost completely without you really realising it.
Although all three of the pieces on this album are quite intense mathematically, the overall effect is relaxing, and rather mind-altering. I once saw Mr Scruff open a five-hour DJ set at the Beatherder Festival with an almost complete rendition of ‘Music for a Large Ensemble.’ It was unexpected and there was definitely a few sceptical looks around, but it was actually a really effective way of changing people’s headspace for an afternoon of eclectic music in the woods.
Octet is a great way to spend a little less than an hour letting your brain enjoy itself on this mental playground, while you can just relax and enjoy all the mad leaps, flips and turns it comes up with along the way. Who needs mind-altering substances when you can expand your consciousness with just a few repeating violins?
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