In 1977, Philip Glass created North Star, a hypnotic, luminous work combining repetitive music and monumental sculptures by Mark di Suvero, in a perfect resonance between sound and matter
North Star is the soundtrack to the 1977 documentary film Mark di Suvero, Sculptor, directed by Barbara Rose and François de Menil. The film follows the process of creating and installing sculptures by American artist Mark di Suvero. The album features concise compositions, with tracks averaging 3-4 minutes in length, while retaining Glass’s characteristic rhythmic and melodic signatures. Instruments such as the Farfisa organ, Fender Rhodes piano, ARP synthesizer, saxophone and flute are used, performed by musicians such as Dickie Landry, Joan La Barbara and Gene Rickard. One of the compositions, Étoile Polaire, was covered by Mike Oldfield in 1979 on his album Platinum. This record is one of my biggest influences, I’am far to be a specialist about his music, but I can say he opened a window on my music process, and sounds architectures.
