Steve Reich Works and Collaborations

Steve Reich met Philip Glass at Juilliard in New York in the late 1950s, where they became friends. Around 1967 in New York, Reich and Glass established a moving company named Chelsea Light Moving. In 2012, Thurston Moore and his friends gave the name Chelsea Light Moving to the band they formed. During a podcast episode featuring guest Brian Eno, Ezra Klein described Reich's music as psychedelic as drugs.

Multiple artists have sampled compositions by Reich. The group The Orb sampled his work Electric Counterpoint in their 1990 song Little Fluffy Clouds. The piece Electric Counterpoint was inspired by a blend of American jazz virtuosity and the Central African horn music of the Banda-Linda people. In 2004, the duo Madvillain sampled Reich's piece Come Out on the track America's Most Blunted, from their album Madvillainy.

In 1985, Nonesuch Records released Reich's first album on the label, The Desert Music. This work drew inspiration from the poetry of William Carlos Williams and the Cold War nuclear arms race. Additionally, a 25-minute orchestral work titled The Four Sections was commissioned by Adeline Dorfman for the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco Symphony.