A Guest Post by Fog Chaser
The creator of instrumental meditative moments discusses Steve Reich
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers 🇨🇦 I’m off today, but I leave the newsletter in very able hands!
Offering an oasis from the chaos
In the driver’s seat, today, is musician, composer, and friend, Matthew Evans. Matt, or Fog Chaser, as he prefers, lives in the Pacific Northwest and composes “meditative moments”—brief instrumental interludes of calm for a world filled with noise. On his eponymous Substack publication he releases one such meditation a month along with a picture, video, or poem.
Over to you, Fog Chaser!
Thank you so much for having me, Nikhil. It’s an honor to be here and share some music with the What’s Curation? readers/listeners.
I’ve always loved instrumental and classical music. In the early aughts, my good friend Kyle really got me into classical music. After letting me rip his multi-volume “History of Classical Music” collection to my iTunes (remember those days?), I was spinning Gregorian Chant, choral hits, Brahms, Satie, Pärt, Glass, Mozart, Bach, Bartok, and so much more.
Eventually, I came across a contemporary group of classical artists — composers like Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds, and bands like Balmorhea, who were essentially at the vanguard of a “neoclassical”/“not quite classical” movement, and who have been so influential to my own work as Fog Chaser. I was drawn to the modern and minimal approach these composers were taking.
So, today, I thought I’d share a piece of music that I find endlessly inspiring, and that first introduced me (and many others) to the whole concept of minimalism in contemporary music — Music for 18 Musicians by composer Steve Reich.
The first sketches for this composition were made in 1974, and the collection was completed in 1976. Nonesuch Records put out the recording I link to above of Reich & co. performing the work in 1997. The whole collection — clocking in at about 55 minutes — makes for a very mesmerizing listen. But, for the sake of keeping this more of an introduction to the work, I’ll just share one of my favorite sections with you, “Section I”, which clocks in at about 4 minutes.
About the piece, Reich writes:
“As to instrumentation, Music for 18 Musicians is new in the number and distribution of instruments: violin, cello, 2 clarinets doubling bass clarinet, 4 women's voices, 4 pianos, 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones and metallophone (vibraphone with no motor). All instruments are acoustical. The use of electronics is limited to microphones for voices and some of the instruments.”
Whenever I put this on, I am transported, transfixed, and enchanted. It’s repetitive without becoming boring. It’s tactile without being aggressive. It’s varied enough to keep your interest but simple enough to allow you to really get into a flow state. The droning repetition of the instruments creates an entrancing rhythmic pattern of sonic delight.
To say that Reich has been an inspiration to me as a musician and composer would be an understatement. Together with other composers, like Philip Glass, Reich has influenced countless musicians in the contemporary classical space. As music critic Andrew Clements wrote, Reich is one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history.”
I hope you enjoy this work. And thanks so much for reading ‘What’s Curation?’.
-Matt / Fog Chaser
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Honored, Nikhil! Thank you!
I loved this! Thanks to both of you. I use Fog Chaser music in playlists I make for clients and newsletter and people often comment that they standout among the others. :)