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recommended for fans of minimalistic music, very good to play in background while working: Arvo part - Alina (1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4RmJaP683A

Can anyone recommend something else minimalistic and so beautiful? I am fan of instrumental music but it is really difficult to find something really minimalistic, for instance Max Richter is great (Perfect Sense score for instance) but far from minimalism.

EDIT: seem Olafur Arnalds is relatively minimalistic, Tony Anderson not so much but very nice

4 comments

It's a different kind of minimalism, but I've found Philip Glass' Akhnaten (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAiv-LU82t4) and Piano Etudes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pe7Lelts8g&list=PLVyiUXw5ED...) to be excellent background listening.

I am familiar with Glass, was listening him already like 10-15 years ago, but it's not really minimalistic as I would like to find

btw. that 1st link you posted is pretty much opposite of minimalism, very complex

I wouldn't really call that Arvo Part piece especially "minimalist".

It's sparse and tonal. And it's quite long. But I would say it's less deserving of the description "minimalist" than say Philip Glass in his earlier style: (anything prior to Satyagraha where he changed a fair bit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ2H1Ipr9FA or Steve Reich (most stuff before maybe Desert Music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P_9hDzG1i0 - which I'm guessing is not the kind of thing you're after.

I do really like most Arvo Part. You'd probably also like John Tavener (not Taverner who was someone else entirely) and Gorecki. Those three often get lumped in together. From there I discovered Alan Hovhaness who is a kind of precursor - much less minimalist again but the music comes from a similar place.

Entirely different yet very much the same: if you're into it, I also recommend some decent minimal techno.

Example: Phobos EP by Näköradiomies [1], especially the first track. The genre reminds me particularly much of Steve Reich, who after all uses human musicians like they're tracks in Ableton Live. Pärt isn't too far off either.

[1] http://catnappers.net/nakoradiomies-phobos-ep.html (free, legal download)

Sure, here's a few I quite like:

Nils Frahm, Phillip Glass, Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Dustin O'Halloran

A few highlighted tracks:

"Eyes Closed and Travelling" — Peter Broderick

"20:17" — Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm

"Opus 20" — Dustin O'Halloran

"Improvisation for Coughs and a Cell Phone" — Nils Frahm

yeah, I was doing yesterday more research into this, end up downloading Light & Motion which sounds best from what I heard, not that minimalistic but nice optimistic and Tony Anderson was also pretty good

I will check few of those I haven't heard, thank you