As a jazz studies drummer at the University of Michigan, Erik Hall encountered a life-changing moment when he was first exposed to Steve Reich‘s enormously influential Music for 18 Musicians. Long considered a lodestar of the minimalist genre, Reich’s piece influenced Hall to the point that he reconstructed it as a solo artist, painstakingly recreating it in his home studio with his own keyboards, guitars, and synthesizers, and releasing it on the Western Vinyl label in 2020. That was followed by a reinterpretation of Canto Ostinato, a minimalist piece by the late Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, multitracking grand pianos, electric piano, and organ and releasing it in 2023.
Now, Hall completes his minimalist trilogy with Solo Three. The main difference here is that he is interpreting the works of four composers rather than simply paying tribute to one. Beginning with a sublime cover of the late avant-garde composer Glenn Branca’s “The Temple of Venus, Vol. 1” (from his 1992 album The World Upside Down), Hall transforms the orchestral swell of Branca’s original recording with organ and prepared piano. The result is no less hypnotic and maintains the composition’s grandeur while simultaneously effusing it with Hall’s trademark warmth. As the interlocking notes and instruments grow thicker and thornier, Hall never loses sight of the minimalist tactics’ innate simplicity.
In “Strumming Music”, Hall tackles the 1974 piece by Brooklyn-born, Europe-based artist Charlemagne Palestine, leaning into a more organic feel, substituting the original recording’s naked, bright piano notes with a combination of felted piano and acoustic guitar that blurs the lines between instruments. The result is a fuzzy, intoxicating blur, occasionally dipping into deep canyons of reverberation.
Hall also pays tribute to legendary electronic minimalist composer Laurie Spiegel, covering “A Folk Study”, from her groundbreaking 1980 album The Expanding Universe. In keeping with his tradition of maintaining the spirit of the originals while shifting the instrumentation, the electronic buzz of Spiegel’s recording is retooled with chunky, interlocking electric pianos, as guitars and synthesizers are gradually introduced, resulting in a warm, melodic cacophony.
Finally, Hall returns to the source of his initial minimalist obsession by covering another Steve Reich piece – this time, “Music for a Large Ensemble”. Reich’s composition, recorded in 1978, included violin, cello, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, trumpet, piano, and marimba, and exuded a wide-open, airy feel as it worked its way through the repetition and gradual introduction of various melodies.
Hall sticks pretty close to the script on this one, but again, the difference in the instrumentation offers up a new perspective on an old classic. In lesser hands, the minimalist technique might come off as cold and calculated. Here–and in Reich’s original version–there’s a distinct feeling of comfort within the repeated notes and motifs, particularly towards the end when Hall’s synths bring up brass swells in the synthesizers that feel like a comfortable blanket.
On Hall’s Bandcamp page, music journalist Zach Schonfeld writes that “there is a certain solace to be found in minimal music–a contemplative joy that emerges through sustained repetition and subtle variation”. It’s not necessarily a genre for everyone’s tastes, but Erik Hall–like the composers he is paying tribute to on Solo Three–is an artist who understands minimalism and knows how to execute it brilliantly and uncompromisingly in a way that appeals to a broad range of listeners.