A half-speed mastered, new LP transfer of a best-selling album in the acclaimed series of minimalist piano music recorded by Jeroen van Veen for Brilliant Classics. ‘Throughout, the playing’s brilliant, confident, and sonorous’: this album of the piano output of John Adams won glowing reviews when it was first released in 2017. As an indefatigable champion of minimalist music from both sides of the Atlantic, Jeroen van Veen had recorded some of these pieces before, within his compendious ‘Minimal Piano Collection’ which became an essential acquisition for collectors of the most influential classical style in music during the last 60 years. The 2017 remake of China Gates is even more opulent as a performance, superbly engineered to catch van Veen’s subtleties of touch at the piano, and thus eminently suitable for a high-spec vinyl transfer. ‘There’s something quite nice about encountering interpretations of these perennial Adams favourites that sound so comfortable,’ continued the Arts Fuse review: ‘a pianist enjoying himself, freely exploring the enveloping diatonicism of the music.’ Adams regards Phrygian Gates (1977) as his ‘first mature composition’, and it may seem strange that he has not since written more for solo piano than the four pieces gathered here, but as Jeroen van Veen argues in his sleeve-note essay, these pieces between them say all that needs to be said in terms of the composer’s piano style. Mostly composed in a West Coast beach hut, the gentle flow, rolling swells and thundering breakers of Phrygian Gates add up to a half-hour, overpowering analogy for melodic waves. From the same year, China Gates distils this energy into a five-minute work of memorably concentrated stillness. Adams left off the piano for another 20 years until writing Hallelujah Junction for two pianos in 1996. Van Veen gave the Dutch premiere, and he remains an outstanding, authoritative advocate of Adams’s music.
Release date:
January 19, 2024
Label:
Install our app to receive notifications when new upcoming releases are added.

Recommended equipment and accessories
-
Phono Preamps - Top Picks
A selection of the best phono preamps for your turntable setup
-
Nagaoka MP-110H Cartridge
Features a high-quality elliptical stylus that provides excellent tracking and minimizes distortion, delivering a detailed sound reproduction with an output voltage of 5.0 mV
-
Technics SL-1500C Turntable
Features a direct-drive motor, a high-precision tonearm, and a premium MM cartridge, delivering exceptional sound quality
-
Denon DP-400
Featuring a high-precision, belt-driven mechanism and an adjustable tonearm that ensures optimal tracking and minimal resonance
-
Cartridges - Top Picks
A selection of turnatble cartridges that provide great performance and sound quality
Featured Upcoming Vinyl
-
Brent Cobb Ain't Rocked in a While
Ol Buddy Records
July 11, 2025 -
Before The Dawn Cold Flare Eternal (Blue Splatter)
Reaper Entertainment
September 5, 2025 -
Maroon 5 Love Is Like (Orange; Amazon Exclusive)
Interscope/Geffen/A&M
August 15, 2025 -
Oasis (What's The Story) MORNING GLORY? (30Th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) [3xLP]
Big Brother Recordings Limited
October 3, 2025 -
L.A. Guns Leopard Skin
Cleopatra Records
August 1, 2025 -
The Subways When I'm With You [2xLP]
Cooking Vinyl
October 17, 2025 -
Baest Colossal
Century Media
August 15, 2025 -
Biffy Clyro Futique
Warner Records
September 26, 2025 -
John Maus Later Than You Think
Young
September 26, 2025 -
Dean Johnson I Hope We Can Still Be Friends (“So Much Better Now Blue”)
Saddle Creek
August 22, 2025 -
Faithless Champion Sounds [2xLP]
Faithless
September 5, 2025 -
Chameleons Arctic Moon
Metropolis Records
September 12, 2025 -
Bostich + Fussible Tijuana Sound Machine Nortec Collective Presents
Nacional Records
August 15, 2025 -
Drain ...is Your Friend
Epitaph
November 7, 2025