Composer-pianist Terry Riley and his guitarist son Gyan Riley take seemingly simple musical patterns and repeat them while subtly expanding and changing them as they go. Terry’s influential 1964 work In C begins with a pulse-like piano figure over which a variety of short musical phrases are woven in and out. No two performances of In C are ever the same, as ensembles of widely varying sizes vamp on the repeating riff before stretching it out into a curiously hypnotic and swirling merry-go-round of sound. Terry’s experiments with electronics, minimalism, microtones and just intonation have influenced The Velvet Underground and Pete Townshend (who named The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” in part after Terry Riley). These days, much of the magic derives from the sometimes subtle interplay between father and son.

Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier; Sat., Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.; $30 & $50. (562) 907-4203, http://shannoncenter.org/events/terry-riley.  

 

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