Steve Reich’s 1989 Nonesuch recordings Different Trains and Electric Counterpoint get new vinyl reissue

Steve Reich’s 1989 Nonesuch recordings Different Trains and Electric Counterpoint get new vinyl reissue

Open yer wallets, minimalist maximalists: in commemoration of the recent 30th anniversary of its world-premiere performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Kronos Quartet’s subsequent recording of Steve Reich’s landmark composition Different Trains — backed with the equally-seminal Electric Counterpoint — is once again available on that most cyclical and Reich-ian of formats: VINYL.

The brutal and beautiful Different Trains (which won a Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition upon its original release, btw) is a three-movement work which maps the world-class quartet’s dizzying machinations onto snippets of taped speech referencing several cross-country train journeys undertaken by Reich during World War II — along with the chilling reflection that, were he to be living in Europe rather than America, he might well have been traveling inside a Holocaust train to a concentration camp instead.

Also in three movements, Electric Counterpoint is an alternately ethereal and funky-AF clean-tone electric guitar workout featuring musician Pat Methany finger-picking the hell out of his instrument on top of various pre-recorded tape loops of himself.

Check out samples from each composition — as well as a new “mini-documentary” on the making of Different Trains — down below. Then head here to order yourself a fresh vinyl slice of this classic American art-music pie.

Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint tracklisting:

01. Different Trains: America—Before the War
02. Different Trains: Europe—During the War
03. Different Trains: After the War
04. Electric Counterpoint: I. Fast
05. Electric Counterpoint: II. Slow
06. Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast

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