Terry Riley – Shri Camel

Terry Riley’s triumphant return to CBS over a decade after 1969’s A Rainbow In Curved Air, Shri Camel is a meditative masterwork blending the feeling of eastern music with the futuristic electronic technologies of the West (Japan actually!). Riley had been studying with North Indian raga master Pandit Pran Nath for years in search of swara “or the knowledge of profound pitch relationships which reigns supreme.” The organ sounds are generated here through a modified Yamaha keyboard tuned to unequal temperament to permit scales used in non-Western music. There are also as many as 16 organ voices running and interacting simultaneously here creating a sort of one man orchestral improvisation.

Recommended – Full Listen