20 Sonneurs In C

Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ is one of the early landmarks of American minimalism, composed in 1964 and first performed on a selection of wind, brass and keyed percussion instruments like vibraphone and marimba. Over the years it’s been played in countless arrangements, including traditional Chinese instruments and, when Africa Express got their hands on it, by Malian instruments including balafons, koras, guitars, kamalengoni, calabash and more. In C Mali was a Top of the World album in #107 (April/May 2015).

This new arrangement, by sonneur Erwan Keravec, is perhaps one of the strangest, featuring 20 Breton bagpipers, wind players and drummers – a big Breton bagad. While it’s an arresting sound, the fact that the instruments are of a similar sonority means that the interaction of different textures that makes the original and the Malian versions so interesting doesn’t lift off in the same way. There’s certainly variety and clashing tones as one goes through the various sections of the piece, ‘Parts’ 1-9, as different instruments come to the fore but there is always a shrieking bagpipe C. I can imagine it might be quite impressive as a live performance, but as an album it’s a brave experiment. There’s a performance at the Philharmonie de Paris on June 15.