The recent concert in the die Reihe series at KM28, with David Behrman, Nic Collins and Matana Roberts left me more or less delirious as it was just so extremely up my alley. I already knew Behrman as having released on the peerless Lovely Music label, and been an important pioneer in the American electronic music canon dating back to the 60s, but it came as a surprise to me when it was mentioned he even had a hand in producing eternal Terry Riley classics such as In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air. Incredible! Not to mention Behrman is really lovely in person too…
The concert basically consisted of several performances of material composed by Behrman and Collins, with Roberts sitting down with the respective composer and lending masterful saxophone work to some of the pieces. I was basically in bliss when she was accompanying Nic Collins on a piece where the latter broke into a spoken word monologue at some point. Truly a transporting experience, and reminiscent of the great Robert Ashley (without being derivative).
Since the concert ended I’ve listened a whole lot to Behrman’s album On the Other Ocean, exquisite stuff:
