Once lumped in with minimalists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich has long since escaped such a narrow ghettoisation of his work, to see it today revered and reworked by many in the rock field.
When his Music For 18 Musicians was premiered in Berlin, David Bowie spoke glowingly about it to Der Spiegel; Reich has been an acquaintance of Brian Eno since the mid ‘70s.
The electro pulse that beats through much of his music, including The Desert Song, has its echoes in Kraftwerk, while his ‘It’s Gonna Rain’, composed as far back as 1964, is built around a snatch of a fire-and-brimstone preacher’s sermon looped, repeated and manipulated in a way that has lead Reich to being tagged “the granddaddy of rap”.
Does contemporary rock have any reciprocal influence on Reich and his work? “Sure I listen, but I don’t really have all that much time. I’m usually busy working on my own compositions,” he says.
When he has time, what does he listen to?
“I agree with Bono. U2 is the greatest rock band in the world. I got into them back in the Joshua Tree days. ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ knocked me out. The opening of the album, with that long held chord and then the drums coming in and finally Bono coming in. It’s one of the great moments in rock.”
Reich’s awareness of rock didn’t begin quite so late.
“Of course, I’m a great Beatles fan. It was probably Revolver that first got me into rock’n’roll, and Sgt. Pepper's and the movie A Hard Day’s Night,” he recalls.
So what does he listen to for pleasure? Without any sense of ego, he says, “I listen to myself for pleasure, thank you! I spend most of my time trying to compose something that knocks me out, because if it doesn’t knock me out it’s gonna bore the pants off you! But I listen to young American composers in the Bang In A Can group, David Lang and Arvo Part, who’s one year older than me.”
Reich’s music can be hard to categorise, and is often found in record stores filed under anything from classical to new age to world music. When I ask where he feels most comfortable about seeing it, he laughs.
“Wherever it gets sold,” he says. “I see a record as just a piece of plastic, and its whole purpose is to get people to hear the music. So, if my music can be found in improbable locations, that’s good, because it has a chance of being discovered unexpectedly and that can lead to maybe somebody making an impulse purchase out of curiosity.”
I ask him does the notion of pulse, which he discusses in the sleeve-notes to The Desert Music album, relate to the beat that underpins rock music? He explains that he grew up in the ‘50s listening to jazz drummers such as Kenny Clarke. John Coltrane also made a huge impression on him, but he saw how Miles Davis towards the end of his life was gravitating increasingly towards a rock vein.
“Miles was like a weathervane, constantly pointing out the new directions in music, so there are some people who are more disposed to the pulse in music whereas others might be more drawn to Schubert and Schumann and Sibelius and that kind of stuff.”
Six years ago, Reich approved the release of an album of his compositions remixed by contemporary artists like Howie B, DJ Spooky, Coldcut and Mantronix.
Does this suggest that works such as ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ were the precursor to rap? The composer isn’t so sure: “Most, if not all, of the people on the Reich: Remixed album weren’t even born when ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ was done in the ‘60s.”
He does feel, however, that his work paved the way for sampling and other studio effects.
“I think those guys saw it as a precursor of sampling, what we called tape loops then. So I don’t think it’s surprising that a band like The Orb used a snatch of ‘Electric Counterpoint’, the piece I did with Pat Metheny.
“When I first heard that, I thought, these guys don’t just get influences, they take it! But I didn’t call my lawyer. So when the idea of that Remix album came up, I knew there were people doing this anyway and I was happy to go along with it.”
This may give the impression that Reich is not overly precious about his work, and that would probably be right.
He’s a good-humoured and garrulous man, so those who can get to see his public interview with John Kelly at the O’Reilly Theatre on Saturday 18th February are in for a stimulating treat.