TERRY RILEY – Happy Ending (1972)

The first half of this obscure soundtrack from a French short film is one of the best recordings of Terry Riley’s work for soprano sax. Happy Ending begins with subtle, shifting organ work that slowly develops a counterpoint of echoing, hypnotic saxophone lines. The piece shifts and evolves slowly for over ten minutes, becoming more urgent and focused with the introduction of a solo piano playing an almost jaunty air. The sax work does not change character at all, but the same notes that seemed languid when set against the organ are purposeful when contrasted with the piano. The piece starts as ambient, moves to minimalist, and ends as jazz, and the exact moment when one style moves to the other can never be pinpointed. The other piece on this album, Journey From the Death of a Friend, is a more conventional minimalist keyboard piece, pleasant but not involving. If both halves of this disc were as good as the first, then Les Yeux Fermes would rank with the best of Terry Riley’s recordings, and as it is, it’s still noteworthy. Note: So you won’t have to look it up, Les Yeux Fermes means “The Closed Eyes” in French.

Terrence Mitchell “Terry” Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 LP A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music.

Raised in Redding, California, Riley began studying composition and performing solo piano in the 1950s. He befriended and collaborated with composer La Monte Young, and later became involved with both the San Francisco Tape Music Center and Young’s New York collective, the Theatre of Eternal Music. A three-record deal with CBS in the late 1960s brought his work to wider audiences. In 1970, he began intensive studies under Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath, whom he often accompanied in performance. He has collaborated frequently throughout his career, most extensively with chamber ensemble the Kronos Quartet and his son, guitarist Gyan Riley.