Salt Lake Electric Ensemble brilliant minimalists

THE SALT LAKE ELECTRIC ENSEMBLE; "In C" (Salt Lake Electric Ensemble) ★★★★

HILARY DEMSKE, PIANO; "Henry Martin: Selected Piano Music" (Albany Records) ★★★★

HSIAO-MEI KU, VIOLIN, NING LU, PIANO; "Ma Sicong: Music for Violin and Piano, Vol. 2" (Naxos) ★★★★

These three CDs feature local artists playing works that show the diversity of music written in the past half century.

The performances are all superb, and the albums are worth having in one's collection — they'll add a nice touch of eclecticism to any music library.

Terry Riley's "In C" is a seminal work that ushered in the minimalist movement in the 1960s. And 45 years later, its impact is still immense and fresh today as it was revolutionary at its San Francisco premiere in 1965.

"In C" turned centuries-old musical concepts upside down and boiled musical structures to their bare essentials.

The work is repetitive — repetition, of course, being the core of minimalism. Riley built "In C" on 53 short phrases, each of which are repeated as often as the performers want before moving on to the next cell. The work ends when everyone has gone through the sequence of phrases at least once. Its instrumentation is open — it can be performed by any number of instruments in any combination.

The effect is intoxicating for its maddening repetitiveness, but rather than being lifeless, it is stimulating. The listener wants to hear what is next. "In C" is generative; one musical cell leads naturally to the next. And the logic is stunning for its simplicity. Basically, "In C" is just that — an hourlong cadence in C major.

The work has been performed in many instrumental combinations over the past five decades. The newly formed Salt Lake Electric Ensemble decided to realize their recorded version with six laptops along with a piano, vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel and percussion.

They give a fabulous performance that captures the stunning originality of the work through constantly changing colors and sonorities. There is nothing gimmicky about their interpretation; it is honest and real.

The Salt Lake Electric Ensemble takes a work from the '60s into the digital age, and the transition is flawlessly executed and articulated. One can only imagine that Riley would have done something similar back then if he had the means at his disposal. This is a wonderful recording of a work that has proven staying power.