Non è ancora disponibile - lo sarà tra un paio di mesi - ma anche il semplice annuncio concorre in qualche modo ai festeggiamenti di compleanno del Nostro attualmente in corso: è The Columbia Recordings, box contenente gli album che Terry Riley registrò per l'etichetta newyorkese a cavallo tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta, ovvero In C (1968), A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), Church of Anthrax (1971, con John Cale) e successivamente Shri Camel (1980). Lavori innovativi e assai influenti - soprattutto i primi due, divenuti di importanza storica - qui accompagnati da documenti fotografici inediti e da diversi contributi scritti tra cui quelli di protagonisti diretti e testimoni esperti quali David Behrman e Thomas M. Welsh.
A deluxe 4-CD box set bringing together the seminal Columbia recordings of Terry Riley. A landmark reissue from one of the most pivotal figures in 20th-century music. The Columbia Recordings brings together the four seminal albums that Terry Riley created for Columbia Masterworks between 1968 and 1980 - a body of work that redefined the possibilities of minimalism, electronic music, and compositional freedom. Each title marks a critical moment not only in Riley’s evolution but in the wider cultural shift of American music: where avant-garde practice collided with high-fidelity production, and radical sonic ideas met mass distribution. Lovingly remastered and presented with extensive archival material this box set captures Riley at his most transformative, when the pulse of innovation was inseparable from spiritual and sonic exploration. In C alone marked a revolution, influencing contemporaries like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young, while A Rainbow in Curved Air pointed the way toward ambient, psychedelia, and proto-electronica. Church of Anthrax opened new dialogues between experimentalism and rock, and Shri Camel explored Indian tuning systems through digital delay, yielding one of Riley’s most refined long-form works. In addition to all four complete recordings and rarely seen archival photographs from recording sessions in Columbia’s fabled 30th Street Studios in Manhattan, the box set also includes a 50-page booklet featuring first-hand reflections from David Behrman, the original producer of In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air; and an essay by Thomas M. Welsh, Terry Riley’s longtime manager and archivist; and reprints of all essays and notes from the original vinyl releases. Released as Riley approaches his 90th birthday, The Columbia Recordings is not just a retrospective, but a celebration of music’s power to build new worlds - and to change the one we live in.