If you like… 
Brian Eno
Check out Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich ($18, amazon.com). Like Eno’s Music for Airports, this album by one of the granddaddies of minimalism offers a mood rather than a melody, inducing trancelike states of euphoria and introspection. Recordings abound, but the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble CD ($20, amazon.com) is particularly arresting. Just make sure you’re not operating heavy machinery while listening.

ACCESSIBLE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
THE SKYSCRAPER RECONSTRUCTIONISTS

Founder Seth Boustead and company have made a name for themselves through weekly readings of hot-off-the-PDF-file scores as well as commissioning works by foreign composers, which they then perform in the composer’s home country.

Cal-der! Cal-der! Cal-der!” the crowd chants rapturously, inky sweat blooming on their T-shirts after storming the stage for rock berserker Andrew W.K.’s irrepressible “Party Hard.” But on this October night in 2009, the Lakeshore Theater horde is cheering not for W.K., but for the L.A.-based Calder Quartet—bow-wielding men decked out in J. Lindeberg duds who have proven Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2 is a perfect complement to W.K.’s anthemic rock number “I Get Wet.”