Terry Riley's 'Dark Queen Mantra' Weaves Electric Guitar and String Quartet into a Spiraling Whole

It is possible that someone, somewhere has listened to an assortment of recent works by Terry Riley and not been utterly charmed, but it is best not to imagine what life must be like for such a person. Now 82 years old, Riley knocked the course of music history sideways with the highly repetitive, process-driven, open-form piece In C in 1964, but he has refused to repeat himself, instead producing a varied catalog of compositions in which the only constants are propulsive syncopation, a richness of ornamental detail, and melody. 

Dark Queen Mantra, the titular piece on a new recording from the Sono Luminus label, unites two of the sound-worlds that have made up much of Riley's repertoire: the string quartet and the guitar. The bowed string players here are not his usual partners, the Kronos Quartet, but another bold Bay-area band, the Del Sol Quartet, who commissioned the piece in honor of Riley's 80th birthday, and it is a pleasure to hear Riley's music created and illuminated by a chamber group with a performance aesthetic that diverges from the very strong style of the Kronos crew.

The guitarist, on the other hand, is one of Riley's most longstanding musical collaborators. Riley has written his son Gyan whole volumes of Latin-influenced music for electric and acoustic guitar, and this Mantra is no exception: a sort of concerto for electric guitar and string quartet that delves from a sprightly tarantella into something more tuneful and wistful, and then deeper still into a distorted rock guitar tone, without ever losing a certain breezy, Spanish character. 

Along with Dark Queen Mantra and The Wheel & Mystic Birds Waltz, a 1983 Riley quartet, Del Sol also offers here a piece by the legendary contrabass player and composer Stefano Scodanibbio, a longtime Terry Riley collaborator who passed away in 2012. Mas Lugares (su Madrigali di Monteverdi) is a sort of double homage to two other Italian masters: Claudio Monteverdi, whose madrigals emerge like ghosts from the Riley-like bustle of the opening movement, and Luciano Berio, whose own music was similarly haunted by the musical past.

Del Sol String Quartet: Dark Queen Mantra
Sono Luminus | Release Date: August 24, 2017
Available to Pre-Order on Amazon