Different Trains

Reich, Steve
Actuelle Cd
Classical | Aug 2006

Reviews

mufaor
Reviewed 2006-08-21
Minimalist classical music, one of Reich’s most famous pieces, invoking trains and the Holocaust. Energetic, repetitive, and beautiful. Made up of prerecorded tape of people talking about trains and the Holocaust, 3 recorded string quartets, recordings of 1930s and 40s trains, and a live string quartet. One thing special about this recording of the piece is that the Quatuor Bozzini use their own recordings of the 3 taped quartets, as advised by Reich himself. My favorite part of this piece is how the string parts often follow the pitch patterns of the spoken voices. All three tracks very similar. FCC clean.

1. Talking about Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. (Reich as a kid travelled via train between NYC and LA since his parents were separated, in the years 1939-1942.)
2. Darker in tone, voice snippets are about Germans, tattooing, flames, invasion, and Black Crows.
3. “The war is over”…

Amazing music, do play it!

-mufaor

Recent airplay

America - Before The War
maybe some classicalSep 21, 2011
America - Before The War
Cognitive OverloadAug 31, 2006
After The War
Baptism of SolitudeAug 24, 2006
Europe - During The War
Europe - During The War
Cognitive OverloadAug 24, 2006
After The War
Radio Of ImaginationAug 22, 2006

Charting

2006-08-20 — 2006-10-22 Classical/Experimental
Week EndingAirplays
Sep 3 1
Aug 27 5

Track listing

1. America - Before The War
2. Europe - During The War
3. After The War