An incredible project from composer Philip Glass – the third in his cycle of operas that helped transform the world of classical music – and maybe the most creative of the bunch! Glass based the text is taken from original sources, and sung in original languages – quite a feat for the singers involved, and a wonderful combination to the orchestrations – which are heavy in the kinds of rhythmic flows that we always love in the composer's music – using keyboards, woodwinds, and fantastic voices in long-flowing minimalist modes! Shalom Goldman worked with Glass on the vocals – and this performance features Dennis Russell Davies at the head of the Stuttgart State Opera orchestra and chorus. CD

Conducted by Brad Lubman, live at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Titles include "Opening", "Floe", "Islands"," Rubric", "Facades", and "Closing". CD

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Loads of amazing keyboard lines – Glass on organ, intertwined with more keyboards and reeds! Titles include "Opening", "Floe", "Islands"," Rubric", "Facades", and "Closing". CD

Loads of amazing keyboard lines –- Glass on organ, intertwined with more keyboards and reeds! Titles include "Opening", "Floe", "Islands"," Rubric", "Facades", and "Closing". LP, Vinyl record album

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All 12 parts of Glass'suite of pulsating modal minimalist music. The ensemble here is a sextet, with three electric organs and three reeds, plus voice. Like his other work of this era, the tones overlap and slowly unfold to reveal underlying patterns over the course of the piece. Far more interesting (to our ears at least) than his later operas for the latte-sipping set. CD

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Don't let the 80s-styled cover, and the word "dance" put you off – as the set's filled with beautiful music from Philip Glass – two works done at a time when the composer was maybe at his greatest power, each for two difference dance-related projects! Side one features "In The Upper Room" – done for choreographer Twyla Tharp, and with full orchestrations that are wonderful – very much in the spirit of some of his soundtrack material for Koyaanisqatsi – but without some of the deeper tones and vocal chorus parts. At times, the piano is at the forefront – played by Michael Riesman – but strings and woodwinds are key, too, as the piece shifts through five different dances. "Glasspiece" was done for Jerome Robbins, and has a bit more keyboards at the start, like some of Glass' smaller group 70s work – but then brings in woodwinds and strings in a nice way, before moving back to more keyboards in the final third, which is a reworking of a passage from the opera Akhnaten. CD

One of the first film scores ever done by Philip Glass – and a sublime batch of music that exposed his genius to a whole world who'd never heard him before! The music builds in a beautifully minimal way – with rumbling organ and orchestral themes at the beginning, which slowly evolve into brilliantly streaming lines of repeating notes played on keyboards, reeds, and strings – building in a gradual way, but with really subtle power – and occasional voices that come into the blend to push the whole thing even further. Completely amazing – and still one of our favorite records by the legendary composer! LP, Vinyl record album

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Two pieces of Glass' larger suite of pulsating modal minimalist music. The ensemble here is a sextet, with three electric organs and three reeds, plus voice. Like his other work of this era, the tones overlap and slowly unfold to reveal underlying patterns over the course of the piece. Far more interesting (to our ears at least) than his later operas for the latte-sipping set. LP, Vinyl record album

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Includes music from Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Dracula, La Belle Et La Bete, and more. CD

The follow-up to Koyaanisqatsi – and almost as beautiful! CD

The birth of a legend – a set that brings together all the important early recordings that made Ravi Shankar such a key ambassador for Indian music in the 60s – long tracks that mix his sitar with really incredible percussion, all spun out with pulsating modal energy that went on to have a huge impact on jazz, rock, and even more serious classical music too! Given that Shankar's cited as an influence by folks from Philip Glass to George Harrison to countless others, this package is really the place to start if you want to understand his music – and as with other titles from the Fremeaux label, the presentation is great, with lots of music in the set, and notes in French and English. Titles include "Raga Ramkali", "Raga Jog", "Raga Simhendra-Madhyamam", "Raga Ahir-Bhairav", "Dhun Kafi", "Raga Hamsadhwani", "Raga Rageshri", "Fire Night", and "Improvisation On The Theme Music From Panther Panchali". CD

Third Coasts Percussion ensemble's score for the short film Paddle To The Sea, plus works by Jacob Druckman and Philip Glass. CD

Brilliant minimal work from Steve Reich – pre-fame performances that really get to the core of minimalist composition from the start of the movement – played by a hip small group of musicians that includes Reich, Steve Chambers, Art Murphy, and Philip Glass! "Four Organs" is a wonderful combination of the instruments mentioned in the title – coming together with a cool drone-building quality, and driven by some very slight, soft rhythms on maracas – very cool, and relatively spare – but with a compelling sound that definitely shows that Reich and his contemporaries were onto a whole new groove. "Phase Patterns" has organs again - and is a slow, subtle exploration of Reich's early ideas on patterns of phase shifting – delivered here in a spare, stark, simple way that really hooks you into his musical ideas, in ways that some of the larger concept records sometimes fail to do. LP, Vinyl record album

Sitar genius Ravi Shankar was a huge figure on the American scene in the 60s – an important musician who helped get Indian music the recognition it deserved – and who went on to influence giants like The Beatles and Philip Glass in their own music as well! Yet despite these obvious and oft-told touchstones, Shankar has a much longer, richer story – all of which is covered here in tremendous depth – the result of a huge project that involved over 130 interviews, materials from the Shankar family archives, and countless other hours of research – all to really get at the unique place that Ravi holds in the global music scene! This heavy, hardcover volume is over 650 pages, including some very detailed notes and other information at the end – packaged with two sections of black and white images as well. Book

Sublime soundtrack material from Max Richter – but work that dovetails perfectly with some of his more "serious" albums on Deutsche Grammophon! The music features Richter on piano, alongside two cellos, a violin, and viola – but sounding completely unlike piano and strings – as the instruments are all used in that flowing, open, spacious style that Max his brought to other compositions – melodic and atmospheric at the same time, yet rich in feeling and tone, and never sleepy at all! Richter's a fantastic minimalist – but one who's completely different than the generation of Steve Reich and Philip Glass – although, like Glass, his compositional techniques are turning out to be a perfect accompaniment to images on a screen. Titles include "Stairs Abyss Starlight", "Ocean House Mirror", "Interior Horses", "The Young Mariner", "Powder Pills Truth", "Whale Window Hotel 1", and "Dinner & The Ship Of Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful little record, and one that's a bit hard to place – it's partly jazz, but something else as well – as Robert Stillman has more of a legacy in more serious composition, but here delivers a session of improvisations on Fender Rhodes! Yet this isn't your typical Rhodes album either – not funky or soulful, but instead uses the instrument in a really different way – almost like Philip Glass discovering the farfisa organ many years back – as here Stillman is using the keyboard to generate these waves of electric sound that are completely seductive! The album features seven "Portal" tunes – and one short "Break", which has a bit more of a familiar Fender Rhodes approach. LP, Vinyl record album

A famous Philip Glass side project – a new wave group, produced by him and Kurt Munkacsi, with keyboards by Glass, and a definite minimalist touch! LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible chapter in the Arthur Russell story – and one that's not nearly as well-known as his club singles and art rock work of the 80s! The 2CD package presents some long-lost longer form work by Russell – instrumental pieces composed and recorded in the 70s and early 80s, most of which have a decidedly minimalist feel! In addition to being a dancefloor artist in the post-disco years, Russell was also music director of The Kitchen, and had ties to the more experimental side of the New York scene – and worked in a world that included Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Rhys Chatham, and many others from time. There's echoes of all 3 on this collection, and a large number of tracks that recall the brighter, more optimistic years of modern music – the almost DIY style that hit composition and performance in the stretch after early minimalism, conveyed beautifully on these recordings done for smaller ensembles, often in a mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation. A number of the titles here have never been released at all, and even those that did see the light of day did so only briefly – and often not under optimal conditions. The 2CD package features full notes on the music, and titles that include "Instrumentals Vol 1", "Instrumentals Vol 2", "Reach One – With Two Fender Rhodes (1973)", "Tower Of Meaning", and "Sketch For The Face Of Helen". CD