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Charlemagne Palestine was a constant presence on the downtown New York City scene in the '70s and was best known for his punishing feats of endurance on the Bösendofer piano. Lately, many of his early recordings have been reissued. A few years back, a 1975 piano marathon,
Strumming Music, was reissued, which is Palestine going nuts on the keyboard, banging out a repetitious minimalist pattern for 45 minutes, never missing a beat (Palestine is rumored to have pounded the strings so hard that he would often snap them). Soon thereafter, some of his minimal electronic works were rereleased, which earned him a following in the electronica community. Thankfully, New World Records added this CD, which dates from 1979, to Palestine's growing discography. On it, Palestine simply holds down a single note on a church organ for an hour. So little happens that the monotony makes Steve Reich's
Four Organs sound like a Mahler symphony. But it's the extreme act of minimalism that makes for an intriguing exercise in just how much can be squeezed out of a single gesture. It takes extremely concentrated listening to even notice the dozens of small events such as overtones and harmonics slowly and quietly unfold across this seemingly static--yet oddly sensuous--field.
--Kenneth Goldsmith