more information on the band incl other releases and bidography see: http://blowpipe.bandcamp.com/album/in-c

Vital Weekly number 980---------------------week 18---------------------Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a weekly webcast, freely to download. This can be regarded as the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radioprogramm with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed. complete tracklist here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.htmlSMALTS - IN C (CD by Blowpipe)Right up there, in the canon of classical pieces that are a must hear for everyone who reads Vital Weekly, is Terry Riley's 'In C'. It's probably the best-known classic minimal music piece from the sixties. It's premise is very simple: "In C consists of 53 short, numbered musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats; each phrase may be repeated an arbitrary number of times." Each musician can play whatever phrase (s)he wants and for whatever amount of time. To quote further from wikipedia: "the phrases must be played in order, although some may be skipped" and the length can from fifteen minutes up to hours. Before going into this version: there is even a free app version, which allows you to play your version - try that and see how it works (and also that is not that easy). Smalts are a Dutch group, existing since the early 80s and are, one could crudely say, essentially the band Minny Pops, less the singer, Wally van Middendorp. In the early days very much a 'synthesizer' group playing moody tunes, accompanied by real drums, but in later years expanding also to guitars and such like. Partly because 'In C' sounds like a gamelan piece, which is what attracted Smalts to perform it. I am not sure about the (current) line-up for Smalts, nor which instruments are actually played on this recording, but it sounds great. Lots of emphasis on the percussive instruments, maybe played in real time, maybe from sampled sources, there is also quite some wind instruments used here (and again, I have no idea if they are played in real-time or if they are sampled). It's almost like a train, pounding forward all the time, but if you listen closely to this train ride you notice the gradual changes in this work, and even sometimes voices (at least that's what I believed to hear at various points). Riley thought of this piece to be played by a group of approximately thirty-five players, but I am sure Smalts has a smaller line-up. They manage however to sound this piece as a small chamber orchestra. It's also hard to tell if this is the result of a live recording, or layering it in the studio; somehow I think this is a live recording, but I can't substantiate that claim. I do know that I think this is a great version, which was one hell of a beautiful ride for the entire thirty-three minutes. I know only a few versions but this is surely a must hear version, I think. It's condensed but very repetitive and beautifully shifting. (FdW)Address: http://blowpipe.bandcamp.com