Minimal
15 vinyl records found
Minimal music emerged from 1960s experimental scenes in San Francisco lofts and New York underground spaces, built on consonant harmony, steady pulses, and hypnotic repetition. The genre became the defining experimental sound of the late 20th century, with composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass establishing the template that continues to influence electronic and contemporary classical collectors.
About the Minimal genre
The minimalist movement began as a scruffy underground practice in the early 1960s, emphasizing stasis and slow transformation through reiteration of small musical units. Composers worked with steady pulses, immobile drones, and deliberate constraint, rejecting the complexity of earlier avant-garde traditions. The term 'minimalist music' was formalized around 1970 by Michael Nyman, borrowed from the visual arts concept of minimalism. Some practitioners used 'process music' to describe work that transformed itself according to strict compositional rules.
Four American composers became most visibly associated with the movement: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young, though Young's influence ran deeper than his public profile. European minimalists developed parallel approaches, with figures like Louis Andriessen, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Henryk Górecki, Arvo Pärt, and John Tavener contributing distinctive national perspectives. What began as an alternative practice became the most popular experimental music style of its era, eventually influencing electronic music, ambient, and contemporary composition far beyond its original circles.