Philip Glass — Glassworks (1982)

Glass for dummies (like me)

Glassworks compared to ‘Einstein On the Beach’ could be a kind of Philip Glass for dummies. In fact, Glass said of this album that it was intended to introduce his music to a wider/general audience.

It worked for me, from the first listen it grabbed me, with 6 relatively short songs and diverse melodies (at least for the minimalist style where sometimes 3 sustained notes played for 18 minutes is enough). “Opening”, an exquisite piano piece, is a timeless classic, a prodigy of sensitivity and evocative elegance, infallible to create any relaxed state of reflection and contemplation. “Floe” starts deceptively as a peaceful orchestral piece, when it is the most frenetic track on the album with its dizzying succession of fast-paced instruments, a delightful adrenaline rush, even if it takes you out of the peaceful haven of ‘Opening’. ‘Island’ is more subtle yet cinematic, with barely suggested background melodies creating another placid, beautiful and accessible song.

‘Rubric’ is like the second part of ‘Floe’, maintaining the same frenetic style of layering several instruments playing different notes, following almost mathematical patterns. ‘Facades’ follows the slower and more subtle style of ‘Island’, and the album closes with, you guessed it, ‘Closing’, which is basically a reprise of ‘Opening’ replacing the piano with a soft orchestration.

The album could be blamed for the repetition of patterns and melodies and the 6 songs, which in a way are 3 songs repeated two times with some variations, but is an ideal record to get into minimalism and Glass. It sold 250.000 copies in 1982 when this type of music was still aimed at the underground.