ORB: MINIMALISM TO THE MAX.

Byline: Emmanuelle Soichet Staff Writer

There is a rave going on at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.Forget the Ecstasy-driven dancing and glow sticks. This rave's L.A.

Philharmonic-style, with world-class DJs and visual projections not to mention the hall's standard uniformed ushers, plush seats and $3 chocolate chip cookies.

At midnight Saturday, the Phil kicks off its two-week Minimalist Jukebox showcase with a six-hour electronic music show headlined by the Orb, the British group that pioneered ambient house music,and renowned for its extravagant visual shows.

A crew of L.A.-based DJs Dntel, John Tejada, Boom Bip - will open up the evening with visual projections by North Hollywood-based video jockey Vello Virkhaus sprinkled throughout the building, creating what the Phil hopes is a massive lounge for the city's nightcrawlers.

"Part of the jukebox program is that we are looking at how Minimalism affected popular music," notes Chad Smith, vice president for artistic planning at the Phil. "We wanted to contextualize the movement and show it is not confined to small performance venues and ensembles, but its reach is much wider."

Unsure how nightclub grooves fit into a movement defined by the likes of Philip Glass? Having shifted from what began 40 years ago as a musical rebellion in the classical sphere, Smith explains, the essence of Minimalist music is its pronounced, steady pulse, its slowly changing harmonies and small blocks of music repeated to build structure.

"At the time, Minimalism was a reaction against new music, which in the '60s had become academic and cerebral. ... These composers (Glass, Terry Riley and Steve Reich) felt that the essence, the pleasure principle of music had been lost," Smith says. "But Minimalism's become less a movement and more a tool that is constantly woven into the fabric of pieces that are being created today."

Enter seasoned electronica giant the Orb.

Led by Dr. Alex Patterson ("Dr." as in Duncan Robert), the group was one of the pioneers in the late 1980s to fuse ambient music - a broad convergence of jazz, electronic, classical, rock and world music with an emphasis on creating a background mood sound - with electronic dance, or house. Credited with creating what's known as "chill out" music, Patterson slowed down house, repeated its melodies, layering it with samples of NASA space broadcasts and reggae pop, and staged intricate light shows.

In some ways, there is no better representation of the genre-crossing legacy of Minimalism in popular music than with the Orb and ambient, which, according to the event's producer Johanna Rees, "the Philharmonic would be remiss ... not (to) include." General admission seating by section, ranging from $20 to $50 per ticket, and music "pumped" throughout the building should create flow within the crowd, Rees says, as people meander through the visual projections.

"The general idea is to have constant movement," says Rees.

Smith notes that one of the ideas when Frank Gehry designed the building was that he wanted to design a living room for L.A., a place that is welcoming.

"The idea of access is very important to us. The Phil is central to the concert hall, but we want this space to be utilized by as many people as well," Smith says.

And just as the jukebox program aims to show Minimalism in its various forms, staging an ambient electronica night feeds into the concert hall's larger ambition to cast its net across a greater swath of Angelenos.

"The idea of access is very important to us. The Phil is central to the concert hall, but we want this space to be utilized by as many people as well," Smith says.

"It may sound unusual for us, but there's something quite appropriate about an all-night event. When people go to (night)clubs, the concerts don't start at 8 p.m.- they start at 2 a.m."

Emmanuelle Soichet, [phone]

emmanuelle.soichet(at)dailynews.com

Minimalist Jukebox highlights

As composer John Adams notes when the music of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass arrived on the scene some 35 years ago, the term Minimalist was "used more for convenience than for accuracy, and we've come to live with the association only with a sense of frustration at how inadequate and misleading the term 'minimal' is when applied to music that is so full of expression and affords us such pure delight."

And with that in mind, Adams, the festival director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox Festival, has programmed a number of provocative shows over the next two weeks.

Go to laphil.org for more information and tickets or call [phone] for tickets. Here are a few highlights:

Monday, 8 p.m.: CalArts New Century Players perform Terry Riley's "In C."

Wednesday, 8 p.m.: The Guinean ensemble Les Ballets Africains combines dance and acrobatics with electrifying drumming, while Los Angeles-based Gamelan Burat Wangi bring ethereal Indonesian music and dance.

March 24, 8 p.m. March 25, 2 p.m.: brings the premiere of a new work by Louis Andriessen.

March 25, 8 p.m. and March 26, 2 p.m.: an all-Reich program.

March 26, 7 p.m.: Los Angeles Master Chorale with guest vocalist Meredith Monk will perform different vocal works.

March 30, 8 p.m.: Piano Spheres, with works by Reich, Glass and Riley.

March 31, 4:30 p.m.: Panel discussion on the history and legacy of Minimalism with Terry Riley, John Rockwell, Anna Halprin and James Tenney at the Getty Center.

March 31, 8 p.m.: Adams conducts the Phil in Glass' opera "Akhnaten" and Adams' "Harmonielehre."

March 31, 8 p.m.: Riley will perform his works at the Getty Center, Williams Auditorium.

- E.S.

THE ORB

What: The first event in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox, under the direction of John Adams, which runs from Saturday through April 2.

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave.

When: Midnight Saturday.

Tickets: Sold out Saturday, but tickets for other events are available. [phone] or go online at laphil.org.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

The Orb headlines the six-hour kickoff event of L.A. Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox. The showcase runs Saturday night through April 2.

Box:

Minimalist Jukebox highlights (see text)