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Steve Reich: Drumming

Colin Currie Launches His Label With Reich's Percussion Masterpiece.

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Label Colin Currie Records

Artists Colin Currie, Colin Currie Group

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The pioneering classical percussionist Colin Currie launched his own record label with a recording of Steve Reich’s iconic Drumming, performed by the Colin Currie Group and released in March 2018. Colin Currie Records is a platform for the soloist’s diverse projects, celebrating the extraordinary developments for percussion music over the past century. Drumming was the piece which launched the Colin Currie Group, a virtuoso ensemble of musicians hand-picked by Currie. Formed in 2006 for a performance at the BBC Proms celebrating the 70th birthday of Steve Reich, the group specialises in the American composer’s work. This recording was made possible by a crowd-funding campaign, which Reich enthusiastically endorsed, saying “It will be, I am sure, the best recording of Drumming ever made!” Dating from 1971, Drumming is an epic work for nine percussionists, two vocalists and a piccolo player, and employs Reich’s trademark phasing technique. Over four connected parts, the composer explores different instrument groups, first focusing on bongo drums, then marimbas and glockenspiels before the complete ensemble come together for the piece’s climax.

Colin Currie Group Synergy Vocals

Tracklist

Total time: 55:07

1. Drumming - I

16:28

2. Drumming - II

17:22

3. Drumming - III

11:47

4. Drumming - IV

09:30

Additional Information

SKU

CCR0001D

Qualities

FLAC 192 kHz, DSD 64, DSD 128, DSD 256, DSD 512, DXD 24 Bit, MKV 48 kHz, WAV 96 kHz

Channels

2ch Stereo, 7.1.4ch Dolby Atmos

Artists

Colin Currie, Colin Currie Group

Composers

Reich

Genres

Classical

Original Recording Format

PCM 96k

Instruments

Percussion, Percussion ensemble

Recording Location

The Warehouse, London, UK

Producer

Ian Dearden

Recording Engineer

Daniel Halford

Release Date

August 04, 2026

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Reviews

BBC Music Magazine

What gives Drumming (1970-71) its hypnotic allure is a sense of toppling jeopardy…Colin Currie Group’s own recording, honed through long performance practice, brings you into a magic circle where every impact is precisely heard, every overtone burnished.

Gramophone

These guys have a pedigree with this unfathomably difficult score and their fresh, slick recording shows it...On top, the playing is more than secure: confident, bright and delivered on the front foot...A Drumming for this decade – and probably a few to come, too.

The Times

This performance from the Colin Currie Group, seamlessly compiled from a studio session of 32 takes, is thunderously exciting. The recording, too, thrusts us right into the action as Currie and colleagues thwack and tinkle at varying speeds on bongo drums, glockenspiels and marimbas.

The Sunday Times

[Quartet is] a tripartite, fast-slow-fast structure with a strikingly sonorous centre. Pulse, for violins, violas, flutes, clarinets, piano and bass, is a single span, the pulsation relentless yet relatively reticent, and even self-effacing.