Twittering Machines

Philip Glass
Solo Music

During my last visit to PREX which was inspired by Stephen’s convincing argument which went something like – do it – I had the choice of getting 2 LPs for $150 or a whole bagfull. I opted for the latter.

And I had no idea that one of the records I bought is called Solo Music. I knew it was by Philip Glass because it says so and that its French because it says so in so many words but I did not know it was called  Solo Music. I suppose if I knew Philip Glass’ discography I would have known that a record with “contrary motion” on one side and “two pages” on the other on shandar records had to be Solo Music  from 1975.  But I didn’t. I also did not know that it features just Philip Glass on “contrary motion” until I listened to it last night and that it is sublimely transcendental and that it sounds as if Terry Riley drank a lot of Budweiser and smoked some dope and felt like rocking out while grooving on Ravi Shankar and that he convinced Philip Glass to feel the same way. On the organ.

So I must apologize to Philip Glass because I just didn’t know.

I also did not know that the real release, as opposed to the plain white-clad copy I now own, features a drawing by Brice Marden on the back. My roommate, Rochelle, worked for Brice Marden as a studio assistant and the first few months of her work was spent erasing marks from the otherwise white borders of his drawings.