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About this Piece

One of the first ever tape remixes, Bird of Paradise, was premiered at the San Francisco Tape Center in the same concert as Riley's seminal ensemble piece, In C. Riley takes the rhythm-and-blues song, Shotgun, by Junior Walker and the All Stars, and manipulates the tape in every way possible. The result is extraordinary for its time. There are moments where one could be listening to dubstep. One loop reminded him of the flight of a Pterodactyl, hence the name.