Descending Moonshine Dervishes
Beacon Sound illuminate Terry Riley's lush, improvised new age synth prototype Descending Moonshine Dervishes [1982] with this necessary first-ever vinyl reissue, presenting the wide-eyed wonder of the 50+ minute piece remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and pressed to wax for first time in a generation.
Heralded as 'great for meditating to the cosmos' by Thurston Moore, yet little known when compared with his seminal works, Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes renders the West Coast minimalist deity in pursuit of a flighty solo spirit via modified Yamaha organ fitted with variable resistors to enable his favoured just intonation tuning - a method allowing him to glyde between complex harmonies and better express his unique sonic weltanschauung, which, in turn, has influenced countless artists - from The Velvet Underground to Steve Reich and Brian Eno - since emerging in his groundbreaking In C [1964] masterwork.
However, recorded in concert November 29th, 1975 at Metamusik Fetival in Berlin, Descending Moonshine Dervishes catches Riley farther down the timeline, post- his Persian Surgery Dervishes [1972], effectively marking another milestone in the birth of new age synth music as we'd come to know it; uniquely channelling jazz, Indian classical music and the sense of radical West Coast spirituality which would have been ripe in the warm air around that time.
You can colour us enchanted: it's a totally wonderful release, deserving of a spot in any new age or '70s synth music collection.
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Limited edition 2024 re-press
Estimated Release Date: 20 September 2024
Please note that shipping dates for pre-orders are estimated and are subject to change
Beacon Sound illuminate Terry Riley's lush, improvised new age synth prototype Descending Moonshine Dervishes [1982] with this necessary first-ever vinyl reissue, presenting the wide-eyed wonder of the 50+ minute piece remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and pressed to wax for first time in a generation.
Heralded as 'great for meditating to the cosmos' by Thurston Moore, yet little known when compared with his seminal works, Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes renders the West Coast minimalist deity in pursuit of a flighty solo spirit via modified Yamaha organ fitted with variable resistors to enable his favoured just intonation tuning - a method allowing him to glyde between complex harmonies and better express his unique sonic weltanschauung, which, in turn, has influenced countless artists - from The Velvet Underground to Steve Reich and Brian Eno - since emerging in his groundbreaking In C [1964] masterwork.
However, recorded in concert November 29th, 1975 at Metamusik Fetival in Berlin, Descending Moonshine Dervishes catches Riley farther down the timeline, post- his Persian Surgery Dervishes [1972], effectively marking another milestone in the birth of new age synth music as we'd come to know it; uniquely channelling jazz, Indian classical music and the sense of radical West Coast spirituality which would have been ripe in the warm air around that time.
You can colour us enchanted: it's a totally wonderful release, deserving of a spot in any new age or '70s synth music collection.