Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, completed in 1976, is well represented on recordings, including in two versions by Reich himself. Yet there is always room for as fine a performance as this. An examination of a random page in the score for the Music for 18 Musicians might give the impression that it is technically unchallenging, but this is emphatically not true. Percussionist Colin Currie, who leads his Colin Currie Group on this self-released album, has a fortunate metaphor for the work: it is, in his words, “the perfect musical beehive,” and the awesomely complex interactions between its parts are the responsibility of the players. Another way to look at the work is that, despite its large ensemble, it is chamber music, and it demands the rare ability to interact as a string quartet might. The group here delivers impressive results in music that manages to remain lively even as it is precise and transparent; Reich’s chord inversions are clearly audible as they develop and as singers are added to the mix in the persons of the four members of Synergy Vocals (who have worked with Reich before), they are magical. Engineering hounds whom one might quiz about the recording location might fail to identify the Abbey Road Studios in London, but this turns out to be an ideal venue. Those who haven’t heard Reich’s masterpiece for a while are encouraged to check this new version out. – James Manheim