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Artist
Adrian Utley's Guitar Orchestra
4+ albums
rockguitarinstrumentalpsychedelicorgan
about
Adrian Utley Portishead brings together an orchestra of electric guitar players to interpret Terry Riley's 'In C'. Written in 1964,‘In C’ is one of the most influential pieces of music from the 20th Century, it established minimalism as a music genre. In C's simple musical rules - 53 musical phrases in C and no duration - allow for infinite variations. Utley's impressive Guitar Orchestra is augmented by organs and a clarinet making for a mesmeric sound experience. The Guitar Orchestra consists of 24 musicians from Bristol: 19 guitarists including John Parish PJ Harvey, Thought Forms, and Jim Barr Portishead live band); 4 organs and a bass clarinet. The effect is an organic musical experience very much created in front of the audience both fragile and thunderingly uplifting. “I've been exploring the sonic possibilities of massed guitars for a while now in various contexts from pure noise to the sacred choral music of Arvo Part. So it was interesting to see what would happen if we had 20 electric guitars plus organs playing ‘In C’. It is an amazing piece of writing and original thought. A new free idea of organised group playing. The beginnings of what we know as minimalism." User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
