PHILIP GLASS / CLUSTER ENSEMBLE – Cluster Ensemble Plays Philip Glass – CD3box – OMM0109

Various modern-classical groups have embraced portions of Glass’ early catalog in recent decades, taking advantage of the fact that the instrumentation is often not specified. But the Cluster Ensemble—a group of talented young players from Slovakia—is the first one to record all the core works from the composer’s great-leap-forward period, and to rely on the same instrument that drove the original Glass Ensemble: electric keyboards. (Like the Glass Ensemble, they use woodwinds and brass, too, but it’s clear which instrument dominates.) Cluster’s triple-album survey of this music, issued on Glass’ own label, offers a rare chance to follow the composer’s early-period innovations with consistent precision. And in terms of production, the engineering of Cluster’s keyboard textures is admirably crisp throughout.

Seth Colter Walls / Pitchfork