Thanks for posting this article, with the music. It's brilliant. Within a few years Brian Eno was doing a very similar sort of thing with his Ambient Music, and it should be noted that the field of electronic music was already in sway, with PDQ Bach and others on the Moog synth.

I listened to it with a really good headset--they have noise canceling, which go deep into my ears because I have a bad hearing loss. So I hear most everything except the very high overtones of the marimba and the organs.

It's not something I'll listen to repeatedly. But there was enough of a tune that it made me want figure it out on piano or guitar, and I'm enough of a musician that I could think of different arrangements.

Compared to Harry Partch, it's quite tame, but on its own, as a piece of music, it's just like the writer said--you have to lean into the music, and that's just what I did. Very rewarding.

Well, I made it through 4 minutes of that. It was cool to hear the slowly changing sound, but I have very little desire to listen to 9 more minutes of it.

I am reminded of a line from the movie "Juno" where she says she listened to some Sonic Youth and said "it's just noise". Now, I like Sonic Youth, and I listen to a bunch of weird music. So I've always appreciated that quote ironically. But sometimes... it really can apply.

That isn't to say I didn't find the article fascinating.

In all fairness, some sonic youth is "just noise". Ive seen them a few times now.

I think I would have liked it more if it sounded either better or worse.

Like, "better sounding" would be replacing the cheesy organs with nice creamy analog synths with a bit of tempo-synced delay, a steady 909 kick underneath, and a lush evolving pad in the background, while "worse sounding" would be like that period in the mid-80s where industrial music had grown out of its "banging on cement mixers and shouting in German" phase but hadn't yet entered its "Pet Shop Boys, only angry" phase.

Either way would be a little more fun to listen to in the short term (at least if you're into that sort of thing), but they'd also remind you of genres that employ extensive repetition, which would set you up with expectations which the music would then subvert as it changed slowly over time.

Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work.

http://www.musicforprogramming.net/

My favorite Reich piece:
Steve Reich - It's Gonna Rain


I'm pretty sure this was posted on OldSE.

I tried to appreciate this piece but I failed. I kept expecting Ross Gelller's vocals to drift into the mix.

I can’t listen to Reich very often, but I do really appreciate his music. Every now and then, usually around crunch time for some idiotic deadline, I listen to it. It helps with the frantic work pace.