Terry Riley Shri Camel (LP)

(Real Gone) 4 tracks - the transcendent masterpiece from 1980 -

the last of the three brilliant albums Terry Riley recorded for CBS, as groundbreaking as its hallowed predecessors.
Riley studied with the classical Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath in the 1970s. Combining this Eastern influence with his own experiments in just intonation (where tuning is determined by equal mathematical intervals rather than the “tempered” tuning common in Western music), Riley created an album whose shimmering textures (played over a specially modified Yamaha organ) seem to change with one's breath or thoughts, like the reflection of rippling water on rocks.
And while Shri Camel is far more challenging and ultimately rewarding than any “new age” recording, you definitely get the feeling that the ever-evolving, ecstatically hypnotic rhythmic and harmonic patterns massage your brain's neural circuitry and leave you refreshed, relaxed and, yes, maybe even a little wiser than before you started listening. The first LP re-release and long overdue!