Mitski on “the most tender sex soundtrack in the world”

(Credits: All Points East / JRCMCCORD)

Mon 17 March 2025 22:00, UK

There is no one else currently treading the boards of the industry who makes the ugly seem artistic, renders the obscure so visceral, and transforms guttural anger into melting tenderness quite like Mitski. The New York singer is a quintessential beacon of experimentality amid the wash of a scene strictly regimented by formula and devoid of fresh perspectives – so much so that she was always destined for a higher calling.

In that sense, any recommendation for new sonic horizons that Mitski passes down is like a gift from the heavens above, a goddess departing wisdom onto her disciples. As such, sit up and take note whenever she issues something different to listen to – because in every aspect of the musical diaspora, from soaring strings to the moments of life’s most introspective intimacy, she has got it covered.

Particularly in terms of the latter affair, Mitski heralds the greatest answer to the call for smooth, loving beats – although, naturally, there’s more than a heavy dose of unconventionality thrown in there, too, for good measure. In a 2016 interview, she singled out the album Music for 18 Musicians by the American composer Steve Reich as being an unlikely but “best, most tender sex soundtrack in the world”.

Mitski didn’t expand any further on her reasons behind the unsuspecting suggestion, but digging into the history of Music for 18 Musicians unearths a treasure trove of subversive vision rarely witnessed in the walls of the classical canon. As a composer generally, Reich has never toyed with the notion of conformity or safety in any of his works – and it’s through this lens that the spiritual parallels between himself and the ‘My Love Mine All Mine’ singer begin to reveal themselves, despite initially seeming musical poles apart.

For the part of Reich’s most seminal work that premiered in 1976, it is clear that nothing about it is as straightforward as its title may suggest. Indeed, according to the composer, Music for 18 Musicians should be played by a far larger group than that mere number because the texture and layers of the minimalist piece can only be captured by a seemingly contradictory expansiveness.

Perplexing as this may seem, the puzzle begins to slot together, particularly with reference to Mitski’s assertion, when the heart of the impenetrable work is finally reached. Ultimately, with the piece sectioned into 11 different components named ‘pulses’, the palpability of the human body rests at its very core. Breathwork is also another vital aspect of that – represented through the use of clarinets as well as real voices, it’s clear to see how Music for 18 Musicians is a window to the soul and, in Mitski’s case, the soundtrack to life’s most intimate arena.

Granted, this kind of experimental minimalism isn’t going to sit well with everyone. But, in many ways, this is the exact kindred sentiment that keeps the creative worlds of both Mitski and Reich spinning, rooted in the unexpected, edgy, and off-kilter. Only those who truly open their minds are invited to the private members’ club, yet once you enter the land of the experimental, you may not ever be able to leave.

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