The Well​-​Tuned Piano in the Magenta Lights cover

The Well​-​Tuned Piano in the Magenta Lights

Released

La Monte Young’s evening-length piano improvisation creates a bewitching sense of alternative space. This effect is accomplished through Young’s otherworldly piano tuning, which privileges a set of harmonies far removed from those typically available on a modern piano. Despite the arcane tuning and forbidding length, the surface of the piece is surprisingly easy to inhabit. Young’s musical ideas are consistently lucid, and the piece maintains a fantastical sense of adventure. So many foreshadowings of the of the ’60s musical culture to come can be heard here: Steve Reich’s pulses, John Cale’s viola drones, quests for transcendence.

Sean Wood

Recommended by

Suggestions
To You Through cover

To You Through

India Gailey
Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth cover

Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth

Jaap van Zweden, New York Philharmonic
Chronology cover

Chronology

Qasim Naqvi
Amaryllis cover

Amaryllis

Mary Halvorson
A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke cover

A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke

Wadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer
Dream Eagle cover

Dream Eagle

Get Hustle
Vade Mecum cover

Vade Mecum

Bill Dixon
A Love Supreme cover

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane
The Tamburas Of Pandit Pran Nath cover

The Tamburas Of Pandit Pran Nath

Marian Zazeela, La Monte Young
Out There cover

Out There

Eric Dolphy