A touchstone minimalist recording. Different Trains reflects on the Holocaust using short tape loops from survivors’ reminiscences and string quartet lines molded around the sound of their speech. The effect is as unusual and fragmentary as it is direct: listeners can find themselves witnessing the events recounted at startlingly close range. The pairing with Pat Metheny’s original recording of Electric Counterpoint is an inspired one, moving into very different sonic and emotional territory — even funkiness — without losing a sense of connection to Trains. This justly-celebrated album is a witness to the surprising flexibility and depth of Reich’s style.

This release finds composer Steve Reich continuing to develop two important strains in his compositional approach: the combination of live instruments and prerecorded tape (with the instruments often doubling the pitches of spoken phrases), and rhythmic phasing. Different Trains enlists the Kronos Quartet in Reich’s musical contemplation of train travel in the US and (grimly) in Europe during the Holocaust; Electric Counterpoint is a phasing piece for multitracked electric guitar, performed brilliantly by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. This is Reich at the peak of his conceptual and compositional powers.