Steve Reich's latest Nonesuch release features the first recordings of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet and 2x5 and performances by eighth blackbird and Bang on a Can, respectively. The album is featured in the Wall Street Journal as proof of more good things to come. "For music by living composers to flourish," suggests the Journal's Barbara Jepson, "it must continue to attract talented young performers. By that measure, the future looks bright" for Reich, given this "noteworthy" album.

Jepson describes Double Sextet as "an irresistible 22-minute workout for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello ... The second movement has a languid, nostalgic theme over quiet piano chords that summons images of accordion players serenading patrons at cafes in pre-World War II Europe." She credits eighth blackbird with being able to "communicate that segment's bittersweet undercurrent with the same fervor they bring to the virtuosic outer movements."

On 2x5, which was written for rock instrumentation, the "versatile Bang on a Can," says Jepson, "ably capture the work's snappy rhythms."

While Reich has "already won a place in music history," says Jepson, the new album "suggests that [his] appeal to successive generations of performers is equally assured."

Read the complete article at wsj.com.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the album a perfect A. Reviewer Jonathan Takiff calls it "fascinating," explaining of Double Sextet and 2x5: "As those titles imply, both ensembles are playing in unison with prerecorded versions of their parts to achieve Reich's trademarked resonant ringing tone qualities. And yeah, it's really rocking!" Read the complete review at philly.com.

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The latest edition of Gramophone picks the album as Editor's Choice for the month, calling 2x5 "Steve Reich’s smartest, most sonically nourishing recording for years." Reviewer Philip Clark writes of this first recording of the piece: "Nonesuch makes savvy use of the studio to create an idealised 2x5."

Clark goes on to praise Bang on a Can's performance of the piece, exclaiming: "These guys rock. No, not with Iggy and The Stooges’ sexual depravity and raw power, nowhere near it in fact. But that’s hardly the point—2x5 is like an exploding diagram of the inner mechanics of a rock band playing at full tilt."

Of the other piece on the album, Double Sextet," Clark says, "It’s a seamless return home to familiar Reich territory, and the ensemble eighth blackbird’s muscular and thoughtful playing is just what’s needed here. No cross-cultural conceit to be traversed. Just enjoy."

Read the complete review at gramophone.co.uk.

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As the Wall Street Journal does, Dusted magazine also notes the impact of the new generation of musicians performing Reich's work. Dusted's Miki Kaneda, in an album review, recognizes Reich's willingness to continue "explore new terrain" over the years, as with these new pieces, and praises the performers for inviting innovation.

"What makes Reich a great composer is not just that he has good ideas, but that knows he has a whole generation of musicians who grew up on his works," Kaneda writes. "Reich responds actively to those players by synthesizing their musical worlds with his. Those musicians are exactly the ones that Reich needs to properly execute his works, because they know how to blend classical technique with modern precision and a rock-solid sense of groove."

Read the complete review at dustedmagazine.com.