Experimental musician Nico Georis detailed a new album, A Rainbow In Curved Air, due out July 29 via Spiritual Pajamas. Georis previewed the record with the composition “777.”
Nico’s A Rainbow In Curved Air sees the composer reimagining experimental artist Terry Riley’s 1969 composition of the same name to open the new album. Georis explained the impetus behind reworking the Riley piece:
Terry Riley’s 1969 experimental classic ‘A Rainbow in Curved Air’ has been an all time fav amongst my friend circles. In late 2019 I went to see Terry and his son perform this piece of music for the 50th anniversary of its release. In this stripped down live setting I was able to hear and understand for the first time the central riffs that drive this piece at its core. These riffs haunted me for months to the point where it felt like I had caught ‘rainbow disease.’ I just couldn’t stop playing the riffs, and they challenged me to no end. Over the course of the coming two years I joyously stalked the vague and magical traces of Terry’s path back into his hidden wonderland of sound.
Nico’s A Rainbow In Curved Air also contains three original compositions. Following his reworking of the title track is “Vapor,” “a plant music duet that features Georis playing along with the plaintive washes of sound produced by a cannabis plant connected to a biodata sonification device,” as per a press release for the album. Georis composed “Vapor” spontaneously as he broadcast it over his pirate radio station Milky Way Radio from his home base in Big Sur, California.
Side B of the LP boasts two more original compositions that utilize slot machine sounds. “Hot Slots” and the aforementioned “777” were also inspired by Terry Riley, this time by his piece “Arica.” Georis also detailed Side B:
The first time I ever heard ‘Arica’ it sounded to me like a bunch of slot machines come to life, as if in some Disney Fantasia cartoon. This original impression is what inspired the entirety of side B. “Hot Slots” is littered with sounds of slot machines at their original speed, while “777” is built from a foundation of slot machines patterns that have been slowed way down. Side B marks a clear departure from ‘Arica,’ looping forward from the curved air of the ’60s into a blissed-out slot machine K-hole of today.
Preview Nico Georis’ A Rainbow In Curved Air with “777” below:
A Rainbow In Curved Air Tracklist:
- A Rainbow In Curved Air
- Vapor
- Hot Slots
- 777
