大象传媒

Close your eyes, and enjoy an hour of percussive meditation.

If there is one area of music that percussion was absolutely made for, its minimalism. In this episode Colin Currie strips percussion right back to the bare essentials as he chooses music that revels in its own sounds, patterns, loops and melodies.

The powerful ability of percussion instruments to weave together multiple layers of sound leads to a playlist with works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Arvo P盲rt, Lou Harrison and the 鈥榞odfather鈥� of minimalist music for percussion, Steve Reich, who has described Colin as 鈥渙ne of the greatest musicians in the world today鈥�.

Steve Reich鈥檚 style was partly shaped by music he heard on trips around the world, and time studying with a Ghanaian drumming master, and Colin also includes some mesmerising traditional sounds with roots in Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Colin himself is one of the world鈥檚 leading interpreters of the music of Steve Reich so he starts and ends with two of Reich鈥檚 most brilliant and celebrated pieces: Music for 18 Musicians and Drumming.

A Tandem Production for 大象传媒 Radio 3