Terry Riley - Persian Surgery Dervishes (1972)

"Recorded in two different concerts in 1971 and 1972 in Los Angeles and Paris, Persian Surgery Dervishes presents two different versions of the title track. Terry Riley, all alone with his keyboards and feed-back, improvises on a basic structure strongly influenced by the emotion and the relationship with the audience. The results are two very different versions: one, the American, very dynamic with moments that reach trance-like peaks resembling the dance of whirling dervishes. The other one, recorded in Paris, is more meditative and thoughtful, dominated by a deep sense of quietness. The music is organized in the typical minimalism vein but it is rich in emotion, an element not always present in such intensity in the music of any style. The emotion is strictly related to the high degree of improvisation we can find in Riley's music that mixes the traditions of the Western and Indian Classic Music. Persian Surgery Dervishes is also one of the milestones of the psychedelic era of the '70s."