It may seem hard to believe that a work by a composer of Philip Glass' stature could be lost, especially since Glass in his early years was inclined toward careful extraction of maximum profits from each of his assets, but that included, at times, the sale of his manuscripts. The Philip Glass of the early 1970s was quite different from the figure of today, and he conceived of his music as more experimental and, perhaps, impermanent. Music in Eight Parts was performed several times and then disappeared, perhaps sold by the composer after he fell into debt. It was discovered by Christie's Auction House among a group of manuscripts in 2017. The version heard here, for woodwinds, a small, rather buzzy organ, and voice, is not Glass' original, which was for two soprano saxophones, viola, cello, and three electric organs, but the present version is a relative, and one assumes it was approved by the composer. The album was recorded with the players remote from each other during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, one of the few releases for which this was done. The score is a pure example of Glass' minimalist style, with a single figure in the winds repeated and gradually expanded over 20 minutes, and reconfigured in its relationship to the other instruments. What listeners will think of it will depend on their attitude toward the canonical period of minimalism, but it's a useful work to have, especially so in this fine, hard-edged performance by the Philip Glass Ensemble: it points directly toward the Music in Twelve Parts that evolved over the next few years, and in its distinctive timbres it begins to suggest the more variegated language of the composer's music to come. ~ James Manheim, Rovi