Did Terry Riley and Philip Glass Influence Pink Floyd's Minimalist Side?

Yes, Pink Floyd—especially keyboardist Rick Wright—openly admired Terry Riley and drew from his approach to repetition and gradual evolution. Wright said in a 1975 interview that Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air was a direct inspiration for the band’s longer, more meditative pieces. He noted how Riley’s use of overlapping, slowly shifting patterns felt like a natural extension of what the band was already exploring on tracks like “Echoes.”

While there’s no record of Pink Floyd citing Riley’s In C by name, the principle of multiple repeating modules fading in and out is