Steve Reich Cycles Through Time: The Echoes Interview

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John Diliberto and Steve Reich 2006

There is hardly a musician on Echoes who does not cite Steve Reich as an influence, especially his 1978 work, Music For 18 Musicians. Reich has moved away from that cyclical sound over the years but his new album, Reich/Richter brings him back. Richter is Gerhard Richter, the German abstract painter.  

Steve Reich: Richter is known to be non-systematic. . . . . then this project is very systematic, which for him, this is unusual. But that’s when we joined forces, so to speak. So I joke, “Hey, here you go trying to make me sound like i did years ago.” And in a sense, the good part is that, as people say, it reminds them of “Music For 18 Musicians,” and hey, you know, it could be a lot worse than that.

Composer Steve Reich is 85 years old, but he’s still making the music of tomorrow. Besides his new album, inspired by paintings of Gerhard Richter that were turned into a film, he also has a new book, Conversations, where he interviews people like Brian Eno, Stephen Sondheim and Nico Muhly who talk about the impact of Steve Reich. John Diliberto talks with Steve Reich in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Steve Reich Conversations

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