2x5 Remixed

Submitted by nonesuch on
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DescriptionExcerpt

This digital EP features the winning entries in the 2010 contest to remix the third movement from Steve Reich's 2x5, as chosen by the composer. As Reich told the BBC World Service, there is a rich history of artists reinterpreting others' work, explaining: “Remixing is a modern take on variations." 

Description

In the fall of 2010, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steve Reich, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music—the online musical collaboration community—launched a search for collaborators to remix the third movement from Reich’s piece 2x5. A panel of judges, including Reich, reviewed the submissions and chose a Grand Prize Winner and two Runners-Up: Dominique Leone of San Francisco, CA (Grand Prize), Vakula of Konotop, Ukraine (Runner Up), and David Minnick of Detroit, MI (Runner Up). In addition to the prizes the three received, Nonesuch is now releasing their remixes digitally on April 26, 2011, as part of the New York celebration of Reich’s 75th birth year.

Reich, no stranger to having his music reworked—as on the 1999 album Reich (Remixed) and the later EP Reich: Remixed 2006—sees a long history to the concept of one artist putting his own spin on the work of another. In his interview with the BBC World Service program The Strand, he traces the roots of remixing back to the 15th century and Josquin des Prez as well as to later variations by Brahms on the music of Haydn. “Remixing is a modern take on variations,” he suggests.

Grand Prize winner Dominique Leone, whose remix Reich selected from more than 200 submissions, told The Strand: “It was a lot of fun, because Steve Reich’s music is so based in rhythm anyway, so when you can take little chunks of it and manipulate that and exploit the rhythm that’s already there, it’s not very difficult to make something that sounds good.” For Leone, the prize winnings were never the motivating factor in his entering the contest. “I really just did this because I am such a big Steve Reich fan,” he admits. “Honestly, the biggest difference that this makes to me is that Steve Reich heard something that I did and liked it. And the fact that I got to work on his music, that I had those files, that’s really the biggest thing.”

Nonesuch Selection Number

527957

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
Album Status
Artist Name
Steve Reich
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
MP3
Price
3.00
UPC
075597964677
  • 527957

News & Reviews

  • It was thirty-five years ago today that Kronos Quartet gave the world premiere performance of Steve Reich’s Different Trains at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. To mark the occasion, Reich’s publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, has published a new video, in which he discusses the process behind composing this piece for string quartet and tape. Reich used carefully chosen speech recordings to shape the musical material for the score, evoking his American childhood during World War II while also addressing the Holocaust. The 1989 first recording of Different Trains, performed by Kronos, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition.

  • Composer Steve Reich talks about creating his iconic 1965 tape piece It's Gonna Rain in a new video from his publisher Boosey & Hawkes. That year, Reich recorded Pentecostal preacher Brother Walter preaching on Noah and the Flood in San Francisco, then aligned two Wollensak tape recorders that gradually fell out of sync, eventually creating contrapuntal lines from the recording. Reich's first major phasing work, it would become a landmark piece.

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  • About This Album

    In the fall of 2010, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steve Reich, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music—the online musical collaboration community—launched a search for collaborators to remix the third movement from Reich’s piece 2x5. A panel of judges, including Reich, reviewed the submissions and chose a Grand Prize Winner and two Runners-Up: Dominique Leone of San Francisco, CA (Grand Prize), Vakula of Konotop, Ukraine (Runner Up), and David Minnick of Detroit, MI (Runner Up). In addition to the prizes the three received, Nonesuch is now releasing their remixes digitally on April 26, 2011, as part of the New York celebration of Reich’s 75th birth year.

    Reich, no stranger to having his music reworked—as on the 1999 album Reich (Remixed) and the later EP Reich: Remixed 2006—sees a long history to the concept of one artist putting his own spin on the work of another. In his interview with the BBC World Service program The Strand, he traces the roots of remixing back to the 15th century and Josquin des Prez as well as to later variations by Brahms on the music of Haydn. “Remixing is a modern take on variations,” he suggests.

    Grand Prize winner Dominique Leone, whose remix Reich selected from more than 200 submissions, told The Strand: “It was a lot of fun, because Steve Reich’s music is so based in rhythm anyway, so when you can take little chunks of it and manipulate that and exploit the rhythm that’s already there, it’s not very difficult to make something that sounds good.” For Leone, the prize winnings were never the motivating factor in his entering the contest. “I really just did this because I am such a big Steve Reich fan,” he admits. “Honestly, the biggest difference that this makes to me is that Steve Reich heard something that I did and liked it. And the fact that I got to work on his music, that I had those files, that’s really the biggest thing.”

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