I participated in a performance of Terry Riley's "In C" at the San Francisco Symphony Hall. I was not part of the orchestra, but part of the audience. The audience was asked to bring their instruments and participate in the construction of the piece . The fact that each participating musician helped create the music and it is different each time it is played was interesting to me. "In C" is based around the pulse, a strong piano note repeated, and acts as the foundation of the track and everything layers around it. I wanted to see what the piece sounded like with drums and then with vocoder.....in C.

- Jack Dangers

www.in-c-remixed.com

"In C Remixed" is the latest project from the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, the corn-fed young group from western Michigan that brought you Innova’s 2007 best-seller, Steve Reich’s "Music for 18 Musicians". That release vaulted to #1 on the iTunes and Amazon classical charts and spent eleven weeks on the Billboard charts. WNYC’s John Schaefer called it “the story of the year in classical music.”

Following in its own footsteps, the group has taken on another Minimalist icon: Terry Riley’s "In C" from 1964, a work known as the Rosetta Stone of the style, that opened up a new world where classical and rock music could finally meet. Insistent, propulsive, and vastly appealing, "In C" is based on a series of 53 interlocking phrases, repeated any number of times, that merge to form a kaleidoscopic, ever-changing tapestry of sound.

From the heady days of the 60s to the fastpaced 21st century lifestyle, what has changed in the last 45 years? "In C Remixed" offers 18 answers to that question. The GVSU New Music Ensemble gave their lively and incisive tracks (pristinely recorded by Silas Brown) to some of the hottest artists around (some of whom weren’t even born when the original was created) and told them to go to town. Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, ambient/hip hop master DJ Spooky, cello goddess Zoë Keating, crossover Wunderkind Nico Muhly, electronica pioneer Jack Dangers, and many more took to their laptops and played freely. From chill room ambiance to alternate-universe dancefloor anthem, from the Left Coast to New York – In C retains the distinctive energy and charm that has made it the Ground Zero of Minimalism for decades. With its stirring performance and rocking remixes, In C Remixed goes well beyond its modest white notes.