This challenge room that includes some of the 20th century’s most austere and mathematical experimental works is also the longest chapter by far. You may feel impatient at spots while listening, possibly even before the first track, a 12 minute meditation on five words, is over. But the length is crucial to the experience: over time, repetition becomes hypnosis, and unintelligible noise becomes distinctive and leviathan, as on Glenn Branca’s “The Ascension.” Once you let this stuff rewire your brain, you’ll never be the same.
1. Steve Reich
Come Out
2. Gavin Bryars Ensemble
Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Single Version ft. Tom Waits)