My journey into the world of classical music continues apace with the discovery of modern classical composer Steve Reich. As well as looking good in a baseball cap, which is a decent achievement for a young chap in my opinion so it is massively impressive for a man of 70, he has a highly addictive line in repetitively rhythmic, minimalist music with a bit of electronica thrown in.
My favourite piece of his so far is called Different Trains in which he takes a nostalgic look at the constant train journeys of his youth in Forties America then compares them to train journeys taken by other Jews around the same time in Nazi Europe. It’s part-autobiography and part-Holocaust memorial and it’s unnerving and moving stuff.
I’m also quite taken with Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians and I’m sure the rest of Phases, his retrospective five-disc CD collection, will grow on me in time.
Apart from listening to Reich, the new year also kicked off in fine style with me finishing a draft episode of a new and quite bleak sitcom. And I’m now working on a new radio sitcom so the new-year-more-writing resolution is holding good so far!
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