A Rainbow in Curved Air

In the late 1960s, composer David Behrman was working for CBS Records's Columbia imprint as an editor when he visited Terry Riley in his New York apartment, witnessing his use of tape loops as accompaniment for his saxophone playing (achieved via the use of two Revox tape recorders running into one other).[1] Riley had previously used this tape loop approach for productions such as Music for The Gift (1963). In 1967, Behrman had received permission from CBS to curate a series of albums on the American experimental music scene titled "Music of Our Time," which would eventually include recordings by Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Richard Maxfield.[1] The first of Riley's releases on CBS was a 1968 recording of In C; the second would be A Rainbow in Curved Air.[1]

A Rainbow in Curved Air was the first recording at CBS to utilize an eight-track recorder.[8] The largely improvisational nature of the work, based on modal scales, owes much to Riley's background in jazz improvisation and interest in Hindustani classical music. Jazz pianist Bill Evans, one of Riley's piano "heroes",[9] had utilized overdubbing on his classic album Conversations with Myself from four years earlier.[10] Riley would intensify this overdubbing approach with added instrumentation.[10]

Using overdubbing, Riley plays all the instruments on the title track: electric organ, 2 electric harpsichords (a Baldwin electric harpsichord & a RMI Rock-Si-Chord), dumbec, and tambourine.[1] The piece moves through several sections; following the opening theme and introduction of "placid chords," Riley introduces "an explosion, a procession of right-hand lines that flutter and pirouette over the over the pulsing rhythmic patterns."[1] The calmer second half of the recording features shorter, high-register keyboard lines which syncopate with the music's modal base.[1]

The B-side of the original LP is titled "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band." It is a saxophone-based drone piece featuring tape loops and jump cuts.[1] The piece is a version of the performances given at Riley's "All-Night Flight" concerts in the late 1960s.[1] It employs overdubbing, with Riley again playing all instruments (including saxophone inspired by the playing of John Coltrane).[11] Riley used a time lag accumulator, consisting of two tape machines, looped audio tape, and a patch cord.[12] The titular Phantom Band refers to Riley's tape delay accompaniment.[8] A note on the album explains that "The spatially separated mirror images were adapted for studio recording by Glen Kolotkin and resemble the sound Terry gets in his all-night concerts."[13]

The original LP jacket includes a idealistic poem on the back cover, written by Riley, which depicts a world in which the Pentagon is "turned on its side and painted purple, yellow & green within a plainly psychedelic environment" and "the concept of work was forgotten."[13]

The album received a favorable review in Rolling Stone.[5] Writing for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau opined positively that the "title side of this has to be a fair approximation of the music of the spheres."[6]

The album inspired Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pete Townshend's organ parts on The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley," the latter named in tribute to Riley and to Meher Baba.[14] It has also inspired progressive, jazz fusion band Soft Machine's instrumental piece "Out-bloody-rageous".[15] A Rainbow in Curved Air has also had a significant impact on the developments of minimalism, ambient music, jazz fusion, new-age music, progressive rock, and subsequent electronic music. It foreshadows the later overdubbed instrumental works composed by Steve Reich. The 1970s progressive rock band Curved Air named itself after this album.[16] The album's title track is also featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the in-game radio station "The Journey." Some of the music on this album was used as the background accompaniment of The Guide in the original BBC Radio 4 series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Was sampled/copied as the sound effects for the 1980 arcade game Moon Cresta.

In 2009 the track "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" featured in the BBC documentary Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements.

On April 26, 2007, Riley gave a live performance of A Rainbow in Curved Air (Revisited). Necessarily, he had to be assisted by other performers: Willi Wynant on percussion and Mikhail Graham working synthesizers and samples.[17]

All composition and performances by Terry Riley.

1. "A Rainbow in Curved Air" – 18:39
2. "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" – 21:38

Credits adapted from liner notes.[13]

• Terry Riley - electric organ, electric harpsichord, Rocksichord, dumbec, tambourine, saxophone
• David Behrman - producer
• Glen Kolotkin - engineer, technician
• Roy Segal - engineer
• John Berg - artwork, front cover montage
• Virginia Team - back cover